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Fat Ollie's Book
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Plot Summary of Fat Ollie's Book
"

Simon & Schuster, Jan 2003, 25.00, 288 pp.
ISBN: 0743202708

Known for his dissing every race and religion, Detective Fat Ollie Weeks is proud of his first police procedural, “Report to the Commissioner. However, the 88th Precinct cop finds official business interfering with the more important matters of authorship as he is assigned to investigate the assassination of City Councilman Lester Henderson, the leading candidate for mayor. Ironically at least in Ollie's feeble brain, the murder occurs while the victim was preparing for a major political rally inside the Martin Luther King Memorial Hall.

Ollie has a second more important case to solve when someone steals his manuscript from his car as he wasted time looking at the Henderson crime scene. Transvestite prostitute “Emmy” believes he has found an authentic report by Officer Olivia Wesley Watts. Emmy plans to locate the diamonds mentioned in the report while Ollie aided by Officer Patricia Gomez seeks to recover his novel.

FAT OLLIE'S BOOK is a fantastic police procedural that focuses on two investigations and contains hilarious excerpts from the “bad” book. The story line satirizes the police procedural sub-genre leaves no one standing and especially skinned is Ed McBain. The 87th precinct cops play key roles and the introduction of Officer Gomez actually takes Ollie a few steps away from his normal range of bigotry, but not totally. In the fifty-second 87th precinct novel (think alphabet two times), Mr. McBain shows his wit with one of the series best novels ever and surely will be recognized as one of the year's finest sub-genre entries.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Fat Ollie's Book
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - very humorous
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story: - present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 60%
Kind of investigator - police procedural, American
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot? - searching for $$$/treasure
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - police/lawman
Age: - 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use? - just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - politician/elected ruler
Motive of antagonist - power
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 1
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript


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