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The word "hark" has all but passed from the American lexicon. I first encountered it in the Little Orphan Annie comic strip, when creator Harold Grey was still at the helm. Annie, while walking in some dark and dangerous setting, would tell her faithful dog Sandy, "Hark!" to which Sandy would reply "Arf." "Hark" means "listen up" or "pay attention," presumably the early twentieth century equivalent of "Yo!" However, it appears from a cursory glance at the last six months of the strip that even Annie no longer says "Hark." So I was intrigued when the word popped up as the title of Ed McBain's latest 87th Precinct novel. It is a fitting title, given that it also heralds the return of the 87th's --- and Steve Carella's --- most enigmatic, frustrating and dangerous nemesis: the Deaf Man.
The Deaf Man may or may not be deaf. His name, age and background are unknown. The 87th is not even sure exactly what he looks like. What is known is that he is extremely intelligent, clever and dangerous. He has probably never been more dangerous than he is in HARK!
Perhaps the most noteworthy element of HARK! is that McBain, well into his sixth decade of writing, has infused this work with what is possibly his most complex plot to date. While there are enough familiar elements of the previous 87th books to provide a comforting familiarity to long-time readers of the series, there are also enough changes in the lives of the principals to keep things fresh and new. There's quite a bit going on with a number of the detectives. Carella's sister and recently widowed mother are getting married, in a double-ring ceremony. A romantic relationship involving a member of the squad is seriously tested, another abruptly and dramatically ends, and a new one begins for two other detectives.
The Deaf Man, however, hovers like a dark cloud over all of them --- from the moment Carella begins receiving cryptic, mysterious messages at the 87th Precinct, messages that are quickly determined to be from the Deaf Man. At first the notes seem to make no sense; they are, in fact, anagrams --- jumbled letter messages that quickly become more complex with each passing day.
While the principals of the 87th Precinct age more slowly than the rest of us do, the times and technology around them change quickly. There are a couple of brief but touching interludes wherein Carella's son somewhat bemusedly demonstrates to him a website that constructs and deciphers anagrams and another that identifies the source of Shakespearean quotations. None of these, of course, brings the detectives of the 87th any closer to figuring out what the Deaf Man is up to.
And what, by the way, is the significance of those palindromes? McBain drops occasional clues to the reader as well, clues that the detectives do not have. Ultimately, though, the reader is not going to figure things out much before Carella does … right in the middle of the wedding of his mother and sister. That, however, might be too late to stop someone of the Deaf Man's capabilities.
HARK! is the best of the 87th Precinct Deaf Man novels, combining a complex plot with McBain's considerable storytelling talents and abilities. There is also a subtle but fascinating symmetry that infuses HARK!, which demonstrates that even the Deaf Man, with all of his ill-used talents and abilities, is capable of repeating a mistake. Recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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