Shotgun is the twenty third 87th Precinct

87th Precinct

The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories written by Ed McBain. McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several occasions.-Setting:...

 novel by Ed McBain.

Brief plot summary

Would you kill someone for love? Someone did. A man and a woman die from shotgun wounds. Kling's girlfriend says she would, and Carella won't answer.

Reception

The New York Times Book Review wrote that Shotgun was similar to McBain's previous book, Fuzz, in its more lighthearted approach to the police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

. However, the reviewer, Allen Hubin, found the work inferior, with a fragmented plot and the humor not as funny. Nevertheless, Hubin said it compared favorable with other recent "fun novels".