["The Heckler" tells] how the boys of the Eighty-seventh Precinct worked vigorously and valiantly—and failed to prevent or to punish a singularly daring crime which laid waste a large part of the city…. Despite a number of promising leads, the precinct cops never quite reached [the criminal] (our good friend Steve Carella getting himself nearly killed in the final flight and pursuit.)… Fortunately, the Eighty-seventh is so warmly established in our affections by now that we can find an account of such frustration as fascinating as any of their triumphs, especially when it is told with all McBain's gift for easy naturalism and vivid color.

Anthony Boucher, in a review of "The Heckler," in The New York Times Book Review, July 31, 1960, p. 23.