Murder on Astor Place
Victoria Thompson
5/5
I loved this book! Such a complex mystery, really shocked me with the resolution at the end. It's the turn of the century, Sarah Brandt is a midwife who is making her own way in the world after the death of her husband. She sees the sister of an old friend the nigh before she's murdered and feels obligated to assist in the investigation. Though Sergeant Frank Malloy is pretty annoyed by that, she uses her extensive network of clients and her resourcefulness pretty effectively.
I was a little annoyed with Malloy at the beginning, he was still making comments at the end that make me doubt him a little, but he's also a police officer in the early 1900s so like what can we really expect. Sarah won't' let him belittle her though, she is more opinionated and determined than he's probably ever dealt with before, and that's mellowing him out a little. Don't give up on the book though if you can't stand him, he gets better.
The mystery was so well-developed, it had a logical progression of clues and though there were some far-fetched elements, it still felt pretty realistic. I think that it highlights an important part of history that I had never read about before, the early police officers of NYC who thrived off a system of dirty money and fear-mongering. I would recommend it for people who love historical fiction, or murder mysteries, because it does a great job of satisfying both genres.
No comments:
Post a Comment