Ed McBain like Ross Macdonald was too rarely seen on interviews. A pity he was never appeared on Charlie Rose. Perhaps he was unwell here: in his life he suffered three heart attacks and died in 2005 after a brave battle with laryngeal cancer. An old pro at plot and character creation, McBain invented police procedurals without which Hill Street Blues would not have happened. His name was Salvatore Lombino: he was advised by Scott Meredith to change it to Evan Hunter: this was years before Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Hunter wrote a string of complex novels: Streets of Gold, a New York Jazz tale; and Lizzie (the Lizzie Borden case); and Strangers When We Met. McBain/ Hunter possessed an ear like John O'Hara's, a tempo like Nelson Algren's, and an urban poet's eye like Carlos Williams and Robert Frost. He wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's The Birds scrapping Du Maurier's plot and was admired by PG Wodehouse for his Every Little Crook & Nanny. *Evan Hunter on The Birds ending* (KZfaq) *Evan Hunter/Ed McBain left art because there's no frame in writing.* (KZfaq). *Author Ed McBain details his theory of the Lizzie Borden Case.* (KZfaq). *The Writer in American Ross Macdonald.* (KZfaq).

Romance is a good book. I agree that it is less police procedurally and has more of a story to it than something like his first book Cop Hater.