Even in 1956, when Ed McBain wrote this book, drug addiction was a problem in the United States. Like so many of the books in the 87th precinct series (this is the third), this story touches on a whole range of subjects that remain relevant even today in the US — like the problems facing migrant communities, or violence against women. As part of the author’s attempt to create a new kind of crime fiction in which there is no single hero but instead a collective, McBain has one of his characters shot in the chest and battling for his life at the end of the book. What happens next — and the Afterword that explains it all — was both moving and fascinating.