There's some humor and plenty of action in [The Ghost of Hellsfire Street] in which the narrator, Steve, is the ever-suspicious, ever-tenacious detective despite his youthfulness. Steve's wildest suspicions are doubted by his friend Miranda and by her father, Sheriff Landry, but all of them prove to be true. One wonders if Platt has made an effort to see just how heavily he can lay it on: there's a kidnapped scientist, a medium who bilks a credulous old woman out of a million dollars, a pirate ghost, a dignified Shinnecock chieftain who lends Steve his sacred spirit bag, a venal politician, and so on. And a fire. Steve talks and talks to his dog. Everything comes out right, and it's all quite predictable and rather boring. Too bad, since Platt can do better.

Zena Sutherland, in her review of "The Ghost of Hellsfire Street," in Bulletin of the...