STRANGE SHADOWS: Spirit Tales of Early America

This latest of the Raskins' annual roundups of American ghosts is devoted chiefly to alleged mediums of the mid-1800s--from the famous Fox sisters of Rochester to ""little Nettie Colburn"" who advised President Lincoln. There is a blind girl with ""spirit sight,"" an illiterate schoolteacher who defrauds the prominent citizens of Morristown, New Jersey, and other teenagers who inspire mysterious knocking or who travel about without their bodies. Some are exposed, others not; many have been hashed over--and over--in previous books; none are investigated here with any seriousness. Insubstantial.