Synopsis
While Evan Hunter is known for his powerful novels and screenplays, Ed McBain is known for portraying the soul of the cop. With Candyland, they join for the first time to write a single story -- a powerful novel of obsession.
Benjamin Thorpe is married, a father, a successful Los Angeles architect -- and a man obsessed. Alone in New York City on business, he spends the empty hours of the night in search of female companionship. His dizzying descent leads to an early morning confrontation in a midtown bordello and a searing self-revelation. Part I of Candyland follows Benjamin's fever-pitched search for identity, told in classic Evan Hunter style.
Part II is pure Ed McBain territory. Three detectives discuss a homicide. The victim is a young prostitute who crossed Benjamin Thorpe's path the night before. Emma Boyle of the Special Victims Unit gets assigned to the case. As the foggy events of the previous night come into sharper focus, it grows clear that Thopre is...
Book Magazine
This combined effort by two writers who are in fact the same person is a sex-drenched novel of obsession and violence. In the first part, "by Hunter," Los Angeles architect Benjamin Thorpe is in New York City on business. His preoccupation with sex leads to a series of desperate measures, unfortunate encounters and devastating consequences. This section establishes the events that trigger the investigation that ensues in the second part of the novel, McBain's, which is a classic detective story. This is a suspenseful read, whether the words are Hunter's or McBain's. What might have been mere gimmick instead works to demonstrate that two heads are indeed better than one.
—Robert Allen Papinchak