by Ed McBain
A police procedural novel is different from a detective mystery. The character who turns out to have committed the crime isn't necessarily a suspect but is found only after chapters of careful investigation. It's a genre that McBain has made his own special territory. In his latest, a writer who made a lot of money with a book about a haunted house is murdered. His girlfriend is a young, beautiful medium. She also has a twin and, remarkably, they look like the deaf-and-dumb wife of the 87th Precinct detective on the case. PEOPLE magazine is implicated in a subsequent murder but reviewers' code precludes squealing about who really done it. (Viking, $10.95)
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