Murder on Astor Place

The setting is intriguing, but I found the writing pedestrian, and guessed the "twist" very early. Also, some of the word choices were highly ahistorical. The one which most annoyed me was the use of "suffragette," in dialog - in the 1890s. The word wouldn't be coined for another decade! ( )

Murder on Astor Place is the first of a series of murder mysteries that take place at the turn of the century in New York City. Sarah is a widowed midwife, who comes from old money but became estranged from her family after her husband was murdered three years ago. While delivering a neighbor's baby on a snowy evening, she notices a girl who looks remarkably like an old school friend. The girl (who is in fact that friend's younger sister) is murdered later that night.

Driven by her natural curiosity and a desire to see things right, Sarah finds herself investigating the crime herself after police corruption pulls cynical Irish cop Frank off the job. In the process, she will not only find herself re-entering society and reconciling with her family, but also showing Frank just how many secrets the rich can hide behind their mansion doors.

The book is slow-paced at first, but as the secrets get revealed it really starts to build. And then the twist at the end hits you in the gut and . . . wow. I'll definitely have to seek out more of the series. ( )

Review held under February 20, 2013 for the TBR 2013 Challenge

Great Story, kept me guessing. ( )

The endless detail gives this book a good sense of historical accuracy. The sights and smells are well described and definitely give a good picture of the setting. The plot however, was a bit slow paced and it took me a bit of time get into this book and be interested enough to finish.

The main character, Sarah is very well done though. I like her independence and how she broke away from her high society obligations. It’s admirable especially for a woman during this time period. She’s able to make a name of herself and become self sufficient. Besides her independence she also had a bit of a temper, which makes a fun read but also gave her a bit of spark of life to her character (which was needed, because the plot remained flat for a while.) If it were not for Sarah, I’d probably would have set the book down and moved onto something else.

Frank on the other hand, I found hard to like. Not because he was mean or bad (well he was rather stubborn and pig headed, and was a bit rude to Sarah at times) but I didn’t find him very interesting to begin with. His personality was pretty boring and the potential chemistry he has going with Sarah, well I don’t feel that it’s really there. He improves a little towards the end of the book but it wasn’t enough to change my mind about him.

The plot, although slow, had few interesting hooks with it. What really got my attention was the last third of the book because all of a sudden you’re blinded with a very shocking (and might I add really skin crawling) revelation So, in some part, the slow pace of the plot was forgivable, because the ending really did make up for it.

Those who have a taste for historical mysteries might be able to like this one. The book isn’t really that long, it’s the pace that makes it long. I say stick with it, it’s worth the read - if only to see Sarah argue with Frank. ( )