eBook Every Little Crook and Nanny epub

Funniest book I've every read! Evan Hunter writes under the pseudonym "Ed McBain.

Great fun! I first read this book over 20 years ago, and enjoyed it just as much all over again! The photos are priceless!

One of my all time favorite books - creative, funny, entertaining.

I read this book many years ago and just recently ran across it on a bookshelf covered up by years and years of other books. I wondered if it would be as funny to me this time as I remembered it being before. The short answer is, yes!

Evan Hunter (who has such blockbuster hits to his credit as The Blackboard Jungle and Strangers When We Meet)has written a funny, funny book about crime and a whacky world of minor thugs who get into trouble just by being alive. Nanny Poole has been left in charge of 10 year old Lewis Ganucci while his mother and father (Carmine and Stella) go on a vacation to Italy. And where else would someone in Carmine's line of business want to go for relaxation? He made his millions as a soft drinks manufacturer (wink, wink) and he controls lots of "business" in New York City. When Nanny discoveres that Lewis is missing she calls Benny Napkins to help her locate the child, fearing he may have been kidnapped. Why did she call on Benny? Because she didn't want Mr. Ganucci to find out his son had disappeared so she couldn't call on anyone important. Benny was the smallest potatoes she could think of to help her out. What follows is a series of mistakes, close calls and misadventures by some of the worst crooks you have ever come across. And by worst I mean bad at their chosen professions. Some of my favorite characters are Vinny and Alfred, the Corsican Brothers, who are not identical twins since they were born fourteen hours apart (right, from the same mother but fourteen hours apart so they are the Corsican Brothers, not the Corsican Twins - surely you get the distinction here!). Another favorite is Snitch Delatore who became a snitch when he snitched but he got the information wrong so now nobody will tell him anything to snitch about because they know he is a snitch. And then there is Bloomingdales (no first name given and not to be confused with the department store because he has no apostrophe), a fence whose apartment was the busiest little bargain walk-up in Harlem.

Each chapter introduces another crook and Mr Hunter uses a black and white picture to give you a visual of what this crook might look like. This was wonderful! Especially when I discovered in the back of the book he listed all the people pictured and their true occupations. Also included are reproductions of picture postcards from Italy (still in black and white), telegrams and letters, and a picture of Lewis' wrist watch along with the inscription on the back. All of this adds interest to the story, at least it did for me. The kidnapper is the only non professional criminal in the story and his conversations with the two men he admires most in the whole world are strange to say the least. Especially since the two men are never present and he doesn't even know them personally. A really weird character.

This book is my idea of a spoof. It does have one surprise element revealed at the ending but otherwise it is just purely fun watching the small time crooks try to get little Lewis back home before his parents get back. At one point someone points out that it is nice weather for swimming but not if you are wearing cement boots. Nobody dies, there is no blood and guts, there is no mystery to try to figure out. Read it for the humor and the pure enjoyment of knowing that Evan Hunter had FUN writing this book. Oh, and don't go getting all teary-eyed for poor little Lewis, he suffered not one whit. I do wish Mr. Hunter had told us what happened to the wrist watch though, it is a novelty item and that thing is worth a lot of money now!

Carmine Ganucci was a retired soft drinks magnate with a nice estate in Larchmont and influence in, well, certain circles. Which was precisely why Nanny Poole, the English governess he had hired to look after his 10 year old son, had no desire to let him know that little Lewis had been kidnapped. Since he was vacationing in Capri at the time, it wouldn't be too hard to keep him in the dark. Provided, of course, the kid returned, safe and sound, before his parents did. So she asked Benny Napkins, who used to be very big in linens and garbage, to help raise the $50,000 ransom...a search that sets off the funniest and most unlikely chain of events since the mob went "respectable". Evan Hunter conducts a merry romp through the labyrinth of disorganized crime with some of the funniest characters you can ever imagine. The black and white pictures in book are as funny looking as the story!

When I decided to read this creased, worn paperback, which came out of a box in my friend's garage, little did I realize that I was about to begin one of the most enjoyable, fiercely funny little novels that I've read in quite a while. Author Evan Hunter (AKA Ed McBain) is well-known as a quality writer, but he was also very prolific. No doubt many of his titles have fallen out of print. I wonder how many treasures like this exist only on the shelves of used book stores these days.

A frustrated intellectual kidnaps a boy, not realizing that it is the son of a major crime boss who is overseas on vacation. When the panic stricken nanny asks a low-level hood to help her get the boy back before her boss returns, a series of comic misunderstandings and misguided attempts to profit from the situation ensues, drawing in a number of eccentric characters. If you can get your hands on this book, read it. You'll enjoy it.