26 DECEMBER 1958, Page 20

Cop Hater. By Ed McBain. (Boardman, 10s. 60 Heat wave

and a series of cop-killings in big American city, teeming with tarts and Puerto Ricans and adolescent thugs. Pretty simple and pretty transparent plot, but quite outstanding fo meticulous, convincing, and fascinatingly factua background of police procedure, and unustal among American crime stories for being pro' police and anti-reporter.

CHRISTOPHER PYI4