Ed McBain’s “Sadie When She Died” is one of the stories from the 87th Precinct series which he started writing in the mid-1950s. It presents the story about the officer, Steve Carella, who knew from the beginning the identity of the real murderer but lacked proof to accuse him of the crime. This detective fiction story contains certain components of a police procedural and dark noir story which are of great significance to it because they help to express the hidden theme of the detective, namely that the authority of police was rather limited in the 1980s when the story was written.
To begin with, the components of a police procedural are numerous in “Sadie When She Died”. The most evident element is that the readers know about the perpetrator from the beginning of the story. The readers easily guess that Mr. Fletcher murdered his wife for he seems to be extremely glad about the fact that she is dead and even Ralph Corwin’s confession cannot confuse them. Moreover, the depiction of police-related topics is quite evident. Thus, the story often describes interrogations, for instance, the one of Corwin: “What did you do? – I had a knife in my pocket. I pulled it out to scare her […] – Did you say anything to her? – I told her to keep quiet […]” (p. 365). Besides, there are numerous descriptions of the investigation process, including the assumptions the officers made, taking the fingerprints, deciphering codes, wiretapping, etc. These elements make the story more detailed and expressive helping the reader become a part of it.
In addition, “Sadie When She Died” is a dark noir story, which accounts for its being ambivalent and cruel. The ambivalence of the story consists of some of the characters’ having more than one name, which is confusing for both the readers and other characters. For example, Gerald Fletcher is also known as Gerry, as well as Sarah, the murdered lady, is known as Sadie. The cruelty of this detective story consists in its presenting a detailed description of the murder and the crime scene with the officers’ trying to presume how the murderer took “the switchblade knife that had later been pulled viciously across the lady’s abdomen from left to right” (p. 358). The story also abounds with flashbacks to the past, for instance when Corwin tells about the murder or when Fletcher tells how he found his wife’s body. Nevertheless, these features are quite helpful because they, just like the elements of a police procedural, point at the hidden theme of the story.
This theme is limited police authority which the officers of the 1980s used to have. The officers in “Sadie When She Died” constantly had to convince witnesses and people involved with the case to give testimonies. This was the case with Mr. Hart who started denying his knowing Sarah without letting Carella explain anything and who further claimed to him “Don’t go showing me any pictures of a corpse” (p. 371). The same goes for Miss Kantor who stated to Carella at once “Spell it out, Officer, I’m not going to help you. I don’t like being hassled” (p. 377). This undue familiarity with policemen testifies to the fact that they were of no authority to the citizens. Dark noir and police procedural elements of the story help to express this idea for they make the story more emotional.
Therefore, “Sadie When She Died” contains such components of a police procedural as disclosing the perpetrator’s identity before the climax and describing such policy-related issues as investigation process, wiretapping, interrogation, etc. Dark noir elements are ambivalence, cruelty, and numerous flashbacks to the past. The analysis of these components reveals one of the hidden themes of this detective story, namely limited police authority in the 1980s.