FFB: The Boys from Grover Avenue -- George N. Dove

I'm jumping the gun on Ed McBain week, but I'm going to have a reprint then.  So I thought I'd talk about this book a week early. 

Back in the Olden Days before the Internet, we couldn't just click a few keys and find a ton of information on just about anything.  Luckily for us, however, the Bowling Green University Popular Press did a lot of good work and published books like The Boys from Grover Avenue.  This book was published in 1985, and it gives you an idea of how important Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels were.  There were a lot of them, even then, thirty-five of them by 1983.  


The table of contents gives you a good idea of what's in the book, but it doesn't mention that there are maps.  Which there are.  And I'll add a few words about the appendices since there's some good stuff there, including a timeline worked out from details mentioned in the books, crime stats for the 87, a necrology, a list of motives, a list of murder weapons, a discussion of the station house, and a few other items of interest.  

George N. Dove was a familiar name back in the early days of scholarship devoted to crime fiction, and I'm sure some of you remember him.  His work was always solid and meticulous, or seemed to be to me.  

In looking around the Internet, I discovered that The Boys from Grover Avenue appears to be still in print, so it's easily available if there are any fans out there who'd like to get a copy.