[Heat] demonstrates why McBain, even when he is not at the top of his form, still writes the best American police procedurals.

The McBain hallmarks are there: dogged police leg-work, crisp dialogue, Q. and A. transcripts with the ring of authenticity, detectives who have become human beings with personal lives, victims and murderers lifted full-bodied from big-city streets, and sinewy, taut prose.

In Heat, Steve Carella, the quiet, steady man of the 87th Precinct regulars, investigates the apparent suicide of an alcoholic commercial artist. But Carella is bothered by some nagging questions. Why did the victim turn off the air-conditioner in the midst of a sweltering heat wave? Why did a man who had a phobia against swallowing pills decide to end his life by downing sleeping pills?…

Carella's case is intriguing with an odd coupling of two unlikely suspects. But the ex-con ploy seems thrown in for...