[Ghosts], Ed McBain's latest 87th Precinct mystery (the 34th), has a new twist for the many fans of this long-running police procedural series. Can you imagine Steve Carella, the hard-nosed cop experienced in the routine of tracking down criminals in a grimy big city, going off with a psychic to a New England haunted house?…

The spooky scene in an abandoned summer cottage (yes, Carella does see ghosts) is scary enough. Yet, it's a strange interlude. Carella and McBain are much more convincing on their big-city turf. In the end, it's slogging police work that turns up to the clues to the killer. Ghosts is middle-grade McBain but far superior to last year's Calypso with its kinky sadism.

Jean M. White, in a review of "Ghosts," in Book World—The Washington Post, May 18, 1980, p. 6.