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87th Precinct #34
Ghosts
A double murder takes place in NYC at Christmas time, and it all occurs starting on page one.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
July 6, 2017
A rec from my great GR pal, Craig :)
Let me ask you on a dinner in Mr. McBain’s Greasy Spoon, on a strange, a bit creepy, interesting date. For the appetizers you’ll get some
in a nice
a couple of murders with an unbelievable motive at first for the main course (all the spicy yummy stuff, like a bottle of long-kept brandy, hidden purpose in a crime committed several years before).
and a spooky character with strange abilities for the dessert. Maybe three of them? To mix everything up.
I really admire the author’s skill to make the most of his material (my ebook is about 150 pages long) and make it interesting, quick paced and at the same time, fully stacked with events. With much going on (), that distracted me a bit. I admit, the murder mystery was well done, I was charmed with the detective process and the thing that I couldn't predict the killer is awesome :) Though I had one issue with the murder, I mean murder, I liked the idea to use it in strengthening the plot, but at the end it was just hanged in the air for the reader to guess.
To sum up, a nice short book in a series, which can be read as a standalone.
Let me ask you on a dinner in Mr. McBain’s Greasy Spoon, on a strange, a bit creepy, interesting date. For the appetizers you’ll get some
in a nice
a couple of murders with an unbelievable motive at first for the main course (all the spicy yummy stuff, like a bottle of long-kept brandy, hidden purpose in a crime committed several years before).
and a spooky character with strange abilities for the dessert. Maybe three of them? To mix everything up.
I really admire the author’s skill to make the most of his material (my ebook is about 150 pages long) and make it interesting, quick paced and at the same time, fully stacked with events. With much going on (), that distracted me a bit. I admit, the murder mystery was well done, I was charmed with the detective process and the thing that I couldn't predict the killer is awesome :) Though I had one issue with the murder, I mean murder, I liked the idea to use it in strengthening the plot, but at the end it was just hanged in the air for the reader to guess.
To sum up, a nice short book in a series, which can be read as a standalone.
April 2, 2015
This is another very entertaining entry in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series and one of several through the years that take place during the holiday season.
As Christmas approaches, Steve Carella is called to the scene of a murder. A woman, on her way home from work, stops by the grocery store and is then stabbed to death on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building. As Carella and other detectives gather at the scene, a second call comes in, reporting another murder in the apartment house itself.
The detectives enter the building and find that a best-selling writer has been bound and then repeatedly stabbed to death. They conclude that the woman killed in the street outside was most likely an innocent bystander who got a look at the killer as he or she raced out of the building and was murdered so that she couldn't identify the killer.
The dead writer specialized in ghost stories and his very attractive girlfriend claims to be a medium who communicates with the spirit world. At the apartment she shared with the victim, she picks up strange vibrations that prove eerily prescient. Strangely, the medium very closely resembles Carella's wife, Teddy, which Carella finds very disorienting. Even more troublesome, the medium has a twin sister who seems to be starved for sex, which presents problems for Carella as the case progresses.
McBain deviates from his usual formula to include a bit of supernaturalism in this story, but it's all in good fun and this turns out to be one of the more interesting books in a very entertaining series. McBain is getting better and better as the series progresses, and now, thirty-four books into it, he's hitting the mark with virtually every effort. Fans of the series will want to be sure to find this one.
As Christmas approaches, Steve Carella is called to the scene of a murder. A woman, on her way home from work, stops by the grocery store and is then stabbed to death on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building. As Carella and other detectives gather at the scene, a second call comes in, reporting another murder in the apartment house itself.
The detectives enter the building and find that a best-selling writer has been bound and then repeatedly stabbed to death. They conclude that the woman killed in the street outside was most likely an innocent bystander who got a look at the killer as he or she raced out of the building and was murdered so that she couldn't identify the killer.
The dead writer specialized in ghost stories and his very attractive girlfriend claims to be a medium who communicates with the spirit world. At the apartment she shared with the victim, she picks up strange vibrations that prove eerily prescient. Strangely, the medium very closely resembles Carella's wife, Teddy, which Carella finds very disorienting. Even more troublesome, the medium has a twin sister who seems to be starved for sex, which presents problems for Carella as the case progresses.
McBain deviates from his usual formula to include a bit of supernaturalism in this story, but it's all in good fun and this turns out to be one of the more interesting books in a very entertaining series. McBain is getting better and better as the series progresses, and now, thirty-four books into it, he's hitting the mark with virtually every effort. Fans of the series will want to be sure to find this one.
July 4, 2019
3.5 stars
Buddy read with Carl!
This is on Kindle Unlimited with Audible narration! It’s a solid mystery with vivid scenes and characters, and good dialogue. I wish I would have had a better emotional connection to the characters, because I didn’t empathize with them as much as I would have liked.
Although I didn’t love this, Ed McBain does have a nice writing style and it has a nice wrap-up at the end. I’m still glad that I finally read this one.
Buddy read with Carl!
This is on Kindle Unlimited with Audible narration! It’s a solid mystery with vivid scenes and characters, and good dialogue. I wish I would have had a better emotional connection to the characters, because I didn’t empathize with them as much as I would have liked.
Although I didn’t love this, Ed McBain does have a nice writing style and it has a nice wrap-up at the end. I’m still glad that I finally read this one.
November 10, 2018
First Sentence: They might have been ghosts themselves, the detectives who stood in the falling snow around the body of the woman on the sidewalk.
The body of a woman is found in front of her apartment building. Very quickly, a second call comes to the police from a woman who has found ghost-story author Gregory Craig murdered in his apartment in the same building. The case leads Detective Steve Carella, with the help of psychic Hillary Scott, to a summer cottage in Massachusetts and an experience unlike any Carella has ever known.
McBain creates the perfect opening. It's visual and evocative, yet with writing which is spare and tight. It's classic McBain. The dialogue has the same crispness, but it never sounds stilted. Although the story starts off quite simply, it takes several twists almost immediately, including the introduction of a doppelganger.
Remembering that the story was both written and set in 1980, reading it now reminds us how much has changed. Many will never have heard of comedian Henny Youngman, yet his humor remains timeless such as—"…the joke about the man who wants to buy a new car and his wife who wants to buy a mink coat. The compromise. The wife buys a mink coat and keeps it in the garage." The difference in technology, or lack thereof, is marked, yet the forensic and crime-scene details give the story a present-day realism which hasn't changed.
McBain does a very good middle section describing other members of the 87th and how the team works together, such as deciding on coverage over the holidays. He provides a good sense of realism in that no police department works only one case, and so includes secondary cases such as the theft of an actual street. Even the series location is interesting in that Isola is essentially New York City turned on its side.
The link between the murders in Isola and a death in Massachusetts provides an opportunity not only to introduce a new location—"The town seemed to have crawled up out of the Atlantic like some prehistoric thing seeking the sun, finding instead a rocky, inhospitable coastline and collapsing upon it in disappointment and exhaustion."-- but add weather almost as a new character, and address the issue of fidelity. The introduction of the very un-McBain-like scene of the paranormal works incredibly well when set against the normalcy and matter-of-factness of that which preceded it.
McBain created an interesting motive; one that seems very timely—"Adolf Hitler must have thought of himself as a hero; Richard Nixon probably still thinks of himself as one; every man and woman in the world is the hero or heroine of a personal scenario." The takedown of the bad buy is a final, brilliant twist.
"Ghosts" isn't usual McBain, in terms of its plot, but all the classic elements are there in a completely engrossing, brilliantly crafted 212-page story. Starting with his first book "Cop Hater," McBain should be required reading for anyone who loves detective fiction.
GHOSTS (PolProd-87th Precinct-FicCity of Isola-Contemp) - EX
McBain, Ed – 34th in series
Viking Press – May 1980
The body of a woman is found in front of her apartment building. Very quickly, a second call comes to the police from a woman who has found ghost-story author Gregory Craig murdered in his apartment in the same building. The case leads Detective Steve Carella, with the help of psychic Hillary Scott, to a summer cottage in Massachusetts and an experience unlike any Carella has ever known.
McBain creates the perfect opening. It's visual and evocative, yet with writing which is spare and tight. It's classic McBain. The dialogue has the same crispness, but it never sounds stilted. Although the story starts off quite simply, it takes several twists almost immediately, including the introduction of a doppelganger.
Remembering that the story was both written and set in 1980, reading it now reminds us how much has changed. Many will never have heard of comedian Henny Youngman, yet his humor remains timeless such as—"…the joke about the man who wants to buy a new car and his wife who wants to buy a mink coat. The compromise. The wife buys a mink coat and keeps it in the garage." The difference in technology, or lack thereof, is marked, yet the forensic and crime-scene details give the story a present-day realism which hasn't changed.
McBain does a very good middle section describing other members of the 87th and how the team works together, such as deciding on coverage over the holidays. He provides a good sense of realism in that no police department works only one case, and so includes secondary cases such as the theft of an actual street. Even the series location is interesting in that Isola is essentially New York City turned on its side.
The link between the murders in Isola and a death in Massachusetts provides an opportunity not only to introduce a new location—"The town seemed to have crawled up out of the Atlantic like some prehistoric thing seeking the sun, finding instead a rocky, inhospitable coastline and collapsing upon it in disappointment and exhaustion."-- but add weather almost as a new character, and address the issue of fidelity. The introduction of the very un-McBain-like scene of the paranormal works incredibly well when set against the normalcy and matter-of-factness of that which preceded it.
McBain created an interesting motive; one that seems very timely—"Adolf Hitler must have thought of himself as a hero; Richard Nixon probably still thinks of himself as one; every man and woman in the world is the hero or heroine of a personal scenario." The takedown of the bad buy is a final, brilliant twist.
"Ghosts" isn't usual McBain, in terms of its plot, but all the classic elements are there in a completely engrossing, brilliantly crafted 212-page story. Starting with his first book "Cop Hater," McBain should be required reading for anyone who loves detective fiction.
GHOSTS (PolProd-87th Precinct-FicCity of Isola-Contemp) - EX
McBain, Ed – 34th in series
Viking Press – May 1980
June 12, 2017
An 87th Precinct book with a supernatural twist. Carmella is the lead character with Hawes in support and seemingly appraising all the women in the investigation as they solve 3 murders
November 13, 2025
Thought I'd finally check out a book from the famous 87th Precinct series, and I didn't think it was bad but it just wasn't for me. Couldn't get into it that much.
2.5⭐
2.5⭐
November 4, 2018
Serviceable entry in the series made slightly remarkable by a turn to the supernatural. I feel like this was a trope throughout the 70s and 80s that non-supernatural cop shows would occasionally put out an episode with a sympathetic medium and leave unresolved whether or not vampires are real or some such. Not sure whether McBain is leading or following here, but, as usual, there’s enough other goodness to make it worth the ride.
There’s also a drawn-out self examination by Meyer Meyer where he thinks about the kind of Jew he is and wants to be and lots of stuff about Christmas and Chanukah falling at the same time.
There’s also a drawn-out self examination by Meyer Meyer where he thinks about the kind of Jew he is and wants to be and lots of stuff about Christmas and Chanukah falling at the same time.
October 15, 2016
I was pretty sure I'd read everything McBain ever wrote, but I somehow missed this 1980 book.
It's everything we expect from McBain: intriguing plot, vivid sense of place, well-developed and beloved characters, and a good dash of wry humor. He just instinctively knows how to blend these elements together.
It's so great to read through the 87th precinct series and see how McBain grew and matured. And he always addressed America's social issues throughout the decades.
I think the best and most mature books of the series were in the 90's and 2000's. But even going back to the earliest ones, considering the eras in which they were written, I've never read one that was less than five stars. Same goes for the great Matthew Hope books and the stand-alones.
There are plenty of other writers doing police procedurals, but McBain was the grandest. The Boss.
I once tried to do a formalistic study of McBain and figure out his prose style. I realized that his magic lay in the avuncular and witty voice--like your favorite uncle telling you a story. Very much like Dickens.
And the Evan Hunter books are treasures, too.
It's everything we expect from McBain: intriguing plot, vivid sense of place, well-developed and beloved characters, and a good dash of wry humor. He just instinctively knows how to blend these elements together.
It's so great to read through the 87th precinct series and see how McBain grew and matured. And he always addressed America's social issues throughout the decades.
I think the best and most mature books of the series were in the 90's and 2000's. But even going back to the earliest ones, considering the eras in which they were written, I've never read one that was less than five stars. Same goes for the great Matthew Hope books and the stand-alones.
There are plenty of other writers doing police procedurals, but McBain was the grandest. The Boss.
I once tried to do a formalistic study of McBain and figure out his prose style. I realized that his magic lay in the avuncular and witty voice--like your favorite uncle telling you a story. Very much like Dickens.
And the Evan Hunter books are treasures, too.
May 27, 2013
A pop writer is found stabbed to death with nineteen separate wounds, in his locked apartment, and a women is stabbed in front of his apartment building from a single thrust. Are the deaths related? Detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are drawn into unraveling the mystery, including the apparent robbery of the writer's girlfriend's jewelry. The girlfriend (and her twin sister) look just like Carella's deaf-mute wife, and seem to crave his attention. Meanwhile, it is snowing both in Isola and up in the remote Massachusetts town where the writer's ex-wife drowned. The ghost stuff seemed a little forced to me or I would have rated this a 4.
January 26, 2012
I've enjoyed the other Ed McBain 87th Precinct novels that I've read previously. One of my favorite things about McBain's fiction is the dialogue he wrote for his characters. Ghosts did not disappoint in any respect with an interesting (and slightly atypical) plot. I'll look forward to reading other novels from this series which I haven't read yet.
August 13, 2025
★★★★
Book 34 of the 87th Precinct series and I am still loving these. Ed McBain shakes up the formula again, something I enjoy when he does it from time to time. This one is a surprising combination of a straight police procedural with a touch of the supernatural. I went in expecting the supernatural side to be a hoax, so it caught me off guard when McBain used it to tie up part of the story at the end.
It was also interesting to see more of Carella as a person. He meets a pair of twins who resemble his wife Teddy, only younger, and he resists temptation. I enjoyed the family moments, especially his scenes with his own twins, and the way they announced they knew Santa was not real. The city once again feels alive and present, and the constant snowfall adds an atmospheric chill that runs through the whole story.
An unusual entry, but it works. I cannot get enough of this series, though now I am starting to worry that at book 34 I have only about 20 left to go.
Book 34 of the 87th Precinct series and I am still loving these. Ed McBain shakes up the formula again, something I enjoy when he does it from time to time. This one is a surprising combination of a straight police procedural with a touch of the supernatural. I went in expecting the supernatural side to be a hoax, so it caught me off guard when McBain used it to tie up part of the story at the end.
It was also interesting to see more of Carella as a person. He meets a pair of twins who resemble his wife Teddy, only younger, and he resists temptation. I enjoyed the family moments, especially his scenes with his own twins, and the way they announced they knew Santa was not real. The city once again feels alive and present, and the constant snowfall adds an atmospheric chill that runs through the whole story.
An unusual entry, but it works. I cannot get enough of this series, though now I am starting to worry that at book 34 I have only about 20 left to go.
April 20, 2017
just finished this one...#34 87th Precinct. great story. 4/4/17 call it 4.5 stars. nicely done. i enjoyed the comedy in this one. what else? tasashi fujiwara is a patrolman in this one, becomes a detective. ghosts, too, some ghosts. four or five or them, maybe six. a seventh? maybe. good read.
April 25, 2021
This is my first experience of McBain, and I may be being a trifle harsh on this one because of my own expectations—I really didn’t expect
June 18, 2021
Another solid entry in the series and this one with a bit of a strange twist that makes a nice sidetrack from the straight police procedural. At the end I was wondering 'did Steve Carella actually see what he though he saw'?
November 8, 2022
Extremely enjoyable mystery, that starts before Christmas/Hanukkah and ends just before the New Year. Carella of the 87th is on the job trying to find a killer that takes him on a crazy chase. The snow, the humor, the side events that help push the investigation onward. Everything just moves together providing surprises, laughs and a challenge to figure out who is the killer?!
If you're looking for a holiday mystery this is a good one too.
If you're looking for a holiday mystery this is a good one too.
July 7, 2025
A little different to the usual 87th outing, but not bad.
May 31, 2018
Too funny ... yesterday I was at work and on break and trying to put this one up on my "currently reading" list but I couldn't remember the title even though I'd already started it! Mr. Ed's book list was no help as there seem to be about a hundred books on it. And those are just the ones under "Ed McBain" - talk about prolific! Anyway, it's pretty solid so far, with the emphasis on police procedure. We know everything that Carella knows ...
As is usual for me, I find the sex lives of the heroes/protagonists to be unnecessary and gratuitous filler. Do we need to know that they're "normal" in "that way"? There MUST be some gay detectives out there in lit land by now ...
Finished last night. This one stayed true to the end. The reader never knows more or less than Steve Carella - interesting. The ghosty was done well too. The author concluded the book in a blizzard of "you see"s. There were seven in all throughout the book. The killers confession had five of them!
As is usual for me, I find the sex lives of the heroes/protagonists to be unnecessary and gratuitous filler. Do we need to know that they're "normal" in "that way"? There MUST be some gay detectives out there in lit land by now ...
Finished last night. This one stayed true to the end. The reader never knows more or less than Steve Carella - interesting. The ghosty was done well too. The author concluded the book in a blizzard of "you see"s. There were seven in all throughout the book. The killers confession had five of them!
September 23, 2012
As has been indicated by other reviewers, this is written in a setting that no longer exists; it's definitely a period piece. That doesn't mean you shouldn't read it, because the work of a strong writer from way back in the day is better to read, than the work of a contemporary hack. The wording in this dated yet clever novel is like word-painting, and the pacing and plot are put together with an experienced hand.
It contains sexual content. I used excerpts from it to teach metaphor, simile and other figurative language, but in a conservative district full of devoutly religious families of various sorts, I kept the book itself behind my desk.
It contains sexual content. I used excerpts from it to teach metaphor, simile and other figurative language, but in a conservative district full of devoutly religious families of various sorts, I kept the book itself behind my desk.
February 10, 2025
Well, 34 books into this series, most are middle of the road tales, especially this far in. Some are really good, enough so in the beginning to keep me reading them, though a couple of the worst books I've ever finished are in this series, too. This is closer to a 2.5. It's not good, though it starts off being pretty interesting for the first half. Then it goes into a crazy psychic and goes to some ghost house where ghosts are running around all over the place. This has very little to do with the conclusion of the case, by the way. It's just McBain being McBain, throwing stuff in so he can just describe everything and everyone in minute detail to get a word count.
Can't recommend it. It's not the worst in the series but probably in the bottom 10 this far in.
Can't recommend it. It's not the worst in the series but probably in the bottom 10 this far in.
May 14, 2020
Two bodies turn up at the same location and Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are on the trail once again. A side plot puts a colleague in the hospital and there is an unlikely hero at the end which earns a promotion.
The usual rampage of crime in the 87th Precinct while the snow falls and Christmas holidays are in jeopardy. The usual fast, all action pace that has come to be the norm in this series.
Good 4 stars. It has cheered me up in these uncertain Corona Virus times.
The usual rampage of crime in the 87th Precinct while the snow falls and Christmas holidays are in jeopardy. The usual fast, all action pace that has come to be the norm in this series.
Good 4 stars. It has cheered me up in these uncertain Corona Virus times.
November 4, 2018
Good story! Scary funny and mysterious. It reminded me watching a an 80's cop movie with a little paranormal thrown in.
Read
August 7, 2025Not my usual fare, but it was just what was needed after a couple of days of wading through dense manuscripts.
November 11, 2021
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When you’re up to book 34 in a series, I guess as a writer you’re allowed to play with the formula a bit. That’s something Ed McBain does a few times in the 87th Precinct series, normally to good effect. Book 33, ‘Calypso’, wove a gothic horror story into the normal police procedural format and it worked. ‘Ghosts’ tries to do the same thing with a supernatural tale and, for me at least, comes up short.
The book opens with detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes arriving at the scene of a double murder. The victims are a successful author and one of his neighbours. The writer’s most recent work was an ‘Amityville Horror’ style non-fiction account of a haunting and his (now bereaved) girlfriend claims to have psychic powers. She also looks uncannily like Carella’s wife, Teddy, a fact that allows McBain to muse on infidelity, as he often seems to. It goes without saying that Carella doesn’t succumb to temptation.
The book has a lot of the things that make the 87th books so great - crackling dialogue, a strong mystery, brilliant incidental detail and convincing police work. ‘Ghosts’ is set at Christmas, which allows McBain to throw in some fun scenes about the negotiation within the department on who has to work the 25th. There are also a number of domestic scenes featuring Carella and family, they slow the pace a bit, but they’re so sweet it’s hard to dislike them.
It’s the supernatural elements that drag the book down, they feel uncomfortably shoehorned in and I couldn’t help feeling that had McBain just left them out the book would have been stronger. They make ‘Ghosts’ an interesting experiment, but not a successful one. There’s still a lot to enjoy here, but it’s definitely not one of my favourite 87th Precinct books.
Wordpress: https://criminolly.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC351...
When you’re up to book 34 in a series, I guess as a writer you’re allowed to play with the formula a bit. That’s something Ed McBain does a few times in the 87th Precinct series, normally to good effect. Book 33, ‘Calypso’, wove a gothic horror story into the normal police procedural format and it worked. ‘Ghosts’ tries to do the same thing with a supernatural tale and, for me at least, comes up short.
The book opens with detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes arriving at the scene of a double murder. The victims are a successful author and one of his neighbours. The writer’s most recent work was an ‘Amityville Horror’ style non-fiction account of a haunting and his (now bereaved) girlfriend claims to have psychic powers. She also looks uncannily like Carella’s wife, Teddy, a fact that allows McBain to muse on infidelity, as he often seems to. It goes without saying that Carella doesn’t succumb to temptation.
The book has a lot of the things that make the 87th books so great - crackling dialogue, a strong mystery, brilliant incidental detail and convincing police work. ‘Ghosts’ is set at Christmas, which allows McBain to throw in some fun scenes about the negotiation within the department on who has to work the 25th. There are also a number of domestic scenes featuring Carella and family, they slow the pace a bit, but they’re so sweet it’s hard to dislike them.
It’s the supernatural elements that drag the book down, they feel uncomfortably shoehorned in and I couldn’t help feeling that had McBain just left them out the book would have been stronger. They make ‘Ghosts’ an interesting experiment, but not a successful one. There’s still a lot to enjoy here, but it’s definitely not one of my favourite 87th Precinct books.
August 10, 2016
I’m a big fan of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels and the truth is that the more of them I read, the bigger the fan I become. The central characters are brilliant conceptions, the plots are strong, the tangents and the humour always a treat and the police teams always manage to overcome the chaos of their departments and of the city in which they serve.
Ghosts has just become my favourite of the bunch I’ve tackled. That could be because of the growing warmth I feel for the detectives, but I think there’s more to it than that.
It’s Christmas and Chanukah all wrapped up in one. Carella and Meyer Meyer take on the case of a couple of murders in a swanky apartment in a wealthy part of town. One of the victims is the writer of a successful ghost book. He’s survived by his wife Hillary who claims to be a medium, has a twin sister and happens to be the spitting image of Carella’s wife Teddy. As the case continues, there are more murders to contend with. There’s also a heavy snow that’s making life difficult for everyone and which is creating openings for Carella as he is forced to spend time apart from his family. The net of the investigation tightens and is complicated by the contributions of Hillary who is determined to use her powers to get to the bottom of what is going on. The weaving together of these two strands leads to a superb and rather unusual ending.
In Ghosts, the process of tracking down the criminals is as strong as ever. What I very much enjoyed about this one was its sexy edges and undercurrents. The book also flirts with the supernatural and rather than detract from the tensions of the tale it really does enhance the drama and the flavour of the piece.
Ghosts has just become my favourite of the bunch I’ve tackled. That could be because of the growing warmth I feel for the detectives, but I think there’s more to it than that.
It’s Christmas and Chanukah all wrapped up in one. Carella and Meyer Meyer take on the case of a couple of murders in a swanky apartment in a wealthy part of town. One of the victims is the writer of a successful ghost book. He’s survived by his wife Hillary who claims to be a medium, has a twin sister and happens to be the spitting image of Carella’s wife Teddy. As the case continues, there are more murders to contend with. There’s also a heavy snow that’s making life difficult for everyone and which is creating openings for Carella as he is forced to spend time apart from his family. The net of the investigation tightens and is complicated by the contributions of Hillary who is determined to use her powers to get to the bottom of what is going on. The weaving together of these two strands leads to a superb and rather unusual ending.
In Ghosts, the process of tracking down the criminals is as strong as ever. What I very much enjoyed about this one was its sexy edges and undercurrents. The book also flirts with the supernatural and rather than detract from the tensions of the tale it really does enhance the drama and the flavour of the piece.
August 9, 2014
This is the 3rd novel I have read in the 87th precinct series. I brought four of the books in a second hand market stall. I am so glad to have found these stories as I am enjoying them so much. These books pleased me and surprised me in two ways.
First I must praise Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunters) in his amazing narrations, he captures the very essence of our make up. His characters are very realistic and believable. From the books I have read, the author created a mini world, set in a New York style city and makes stories based on the police in 87 precinct. Each person living in this imaginary city of America have traits we can see in people surrounding us in real life, each novel in the series has a title which is what the story is woven around. In this case "Ghost" is the key word. I will not give away the plot or story, but suffice to say I would recommend this book highly. The series are crime stories and mysteries.
Secondly since I have started living in my own house (flown the coup so to speak) I have read two novels which had genuine scary moments. Scenes which are emphasised when you are all alone in the middle of the night. Ghost provided the 3rd such scene to freak me out.
Please, please read this book if you like crime novels or if you have similar taste to me.
First I must praise Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunters) in his amazing narrations, he captures the very essence of our make up. His characters are very realistic and believable. From the books I have read, the author created a mini world, set in a New York style city and makes stories based on the police in 87 precinct. Each person living in this imaginary city of America have traits we can see in people surrounding us in real life, each novel in the series has a title which is what the story is woven around. In this case "Ghost" is the key word. I will not give away the plot or story, but suffice to say I would recommend this book highly. The series are crime stories and mysteries.
Secondly since I have started living in my own house (flown the coup so to speak) I have read two novels which had genuine scary moments. Scenes which are emphasised when you are all alone in the middle of the night. Ghost provided the 3rd such scene to freak me out.
Please, please read this book if you like crime novels or if you have similar taste to me.
July 15, 2010
This was the first McBain book that I read, back in 1980. I've read most of the Ed McBain/Evan Hunter books since then, but this one is still one of my favorites. How can you go wrong with a murdered ghostwriter, a psychic, and a haunting? Steve Carella, the lead detective in the story, is wonderfully defined in this novel. Looking back over the 57th Precinct novels I've read since, I think this novel was a perfect introduction to the series. If you've not read McBain, Ghosts is a great place to start!
June 10, 2016
The 87th Precinct and ghosts! Or are there really ghosts? You have to read it to find out. And now it's time to get another book from this series for tonight. It's a good thing there are many of them.
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August 5, 2011My first, but hopefully not last, 87th Precinct novel. A quick, entertaining, suspenseful read.
October 29, 2018
McBain's 87th Precinct series are uniformly good, but some are clearly better than others. And some, well, they deviated from the tried and true police procedural formula that McBain did so well, often to some readers' disappointment. Such is the case with Ghosts, an aptly named title for an episode that dabbles in the supernatural.
The Christmas / Hanukkah season is the backdrop for several murders that Carella and Hawes catch, and the feel of the cold and snow in Isola is just about palpable. A woman is stabbed to death on the sidewalk outside her supposedly secure apartment building, as is one of the residents (a famous author), inside his apartment! Are the two killings related? The boys of the 87th think so. While investigating, the author's publisher also suffers a similar fate, and Carella begins to think all these murders must be connected. The deceased author's girlfriend happens to be a medium (no, not her dress size, but one with some ability to connect with the spirit world) who insists that ghosts are to blame for the killings. That she is very attractive (happens to resemble Carella's wife, Teddy), and has an almost identical looking sister who seems to harbor quite the sexual appetite (good for Hawes, who seems always on the prowl and is attractive to the opposite sex) just make for a more interesting story. But when Carella takes the medium along to another state to further the investigation, things get weird and credulity stretched to the limit.
The other detectives in the squad play very minor roles, to the detriment of the story in my opinion. In fact, this plot seems rather awkward, with McBain padding pages now and then, along with some disjointed attempts at describing other crimes being attended to, but clearly the book is focused on but one rather spooky crime.
It's fun to read nevertheless, but simply not up to the series' usual standards of excellence. Fans should definitely include it to reach independent opinions, but anyone new to the series would be better served beginning elsewhere in the lineup.
The Christmas / Hanukkah season is the backdrop for several murders that Carella and Hawes catch, and the feel of the cold and snow in Isola is just about palpable. A woman is stabbed to death on the sidewalk outside her supposedly secure apartment building, as is one of the residents (a famous author), inside his apartment! Are the two killings related? The boys of the 87th think so. While investigating, the author's publisher also suffers a similar fate, and Carella begins to think all these murders must be connected. The deceased author's girlfriend happens to be a medium (no, not her dress size, but one with some ability to connect with the spirit world) who insists that ghosts are to blame for the killings. That she is very attractive (happens to resemble Carella's wife, Teddy), and has an almost identical looking sister who seems to harbor quite the sexual appetite (good for Hawes, who seems always on the prowl and is attractive to the opposite sex) just make for a more interesting story. But when Carella takes the medium along to another state to further the investigation, things get weird and credulity stretched to the limit.
The other detectives in the squad play very minor roles, to the detriment of the story in my opinion. In fact, this plot seems rather awkward, with McBain padding pages now and then, along with some disjointed attempts at describing other crimes being attended to, but clearly the book is focused on but one rather spooky crime.
It's fun to read nevertheless, but simply not up to the series' usual standards of excellence. Fans should definitely include it to reach independent opinions, but anyone new to the series would be better served beginning elsewhere in the lineup.
April 27, 2025
I don't think the police procedural approach mixes well with supernatural entities like ghosts. We had a ghost story once before in number 25 of the series (Hail, hail the gang's all here) but last time the ghost was a spoof. This time?
McBain either believes in ghosts or desperately longs for them to be true. And in a novel, the author is all-powerful, of course, so he's at liberty to make them true, albeit at some risk.
This novel features a psychic (half of a set of identical twins) who bears a close resemblance to Teddy, close enough for Carella to feel the attraction, though of course he resists. However, he is wholly besotted with her psychic abilities, which are precise enough for her to know where the door key is hidden in a house they need to get access to.
I spent some time expecting her psychic abilities to be exploded. But it went the other way. 'Real' ghosts and psychic abilities were crucial to the final expose, and I lost interest at the point where the ghosts appeared (literally).
It's not that I hate ghost stories. I just don't think they belong in the 87th Precinct world. You could get away with a tiny bit of unexplained suggestion -- one small part that couldn't be explained rationally, perhaps. But here there's a whole SET of ghosts in an powerfully haunted house, and now I can't even remember why they were necessary to the plot, only that they were. I hope he never does this again.
I learned a new word from this novel though: ecdysiastical, which is an adjective describing something involving erotic stripping (as opposed to paint stripping). Not what I would have guessed from the look of the word.
McBain either believes in ghosts or desperately longs for them to be true. And in a novel, the author is all-powerful, of course, so he's at liberty to make them true, albeit at some risk.
This novel features a psychic (half of a set of identical twins) who bears a close resemblance to Teddy, close enough for Carella to feel the attraction, though of course he resists. However, he is wholly besotted with her psychic abilities, which are precise enough for her to know where the door key is hidden in a house they need to get access to.
I spent some time expecting her psychic abilities to be exploded. But it went the other way. 'Real' ghosts and psychic abilities were crucial to the final expose, and I lost interest at the point where the ghosts appeared (literally).
It's not that I hate ghost stories. I just don't think they belong in the 87th Precinct world. You could get away with a tiny bit of unexplained suggestion -- one small part that couldn't be explained rationally, perhaps. But here there's a whole SET of ghosts in an powerfully haunted house, and now I can't even remember why they were necessary to the plot, only that they were. I hope he never does this again.
I learned a new word from this novel though: ecdysiastical, which is an adjective describing something involving erotic stripping (as opposed to paint stripping). Not what I would have guessed from the look of the word.
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