A Mary Handley Mystery, Book 2
Broadway Books
January
19th, 2016
978-0-553-41894-1
Historical Mystery
Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)
Obtained by Blogging for Books
Mary Handley has closed one case with
the Brooklyn Police Department and is determined to become a real detective in
her own right. But when a client comes to her new office saying her uncle was murdered,
Mary finds her second case is as complex as the first one was. Family scandals
and secrets, politics, corruption and more cause Mary to stumble more than
once. Add in a romance with one of New
York’s elite, well the life of luxury is something
Mary could get used to. But Mary is
determined to find out the cause of death and solve the mystery that has
spawned not just one murder but three. Can Mary figure out the case before all
she holds dear is gone in a puff of smoke?
I have to admit I haven’t read the first
book in the series, Second Street Station, and found myself a little lost at
times when I read this one. I highly recommend reading book one first before
you pick this one up. There are things mentioned in book two that took place in
this book that if you didn’t read it, you’ll have a hard time figuring things
out at times. With that said, I got to admit that I really liked this book,
even with the above mentions from time to time. With a mystery that kept me
intrigued to real life people showing up (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller,
etc) to a time period that had me enthralled with the way everything was back
then. This author does a great job in capturing it all within the pages of BROOKLYN
ON FIRE. This author has a
flair for describing events and people to the point where they come alive on
paper, ready to step out of the book and into your living room. The mix of
fiction and mystery was done masterfully and kept my attention at times to the
point where I forgot to eat, sleep and more. It was highly entertaining. But
there was a downside as well. The author puts way too much into this book plot
wise as well as point of views jump all over the place. One minute you are
following Mary as she hunts up clues and ten the next you are reading about
politicians and their desire for more-money, land, power, etc. All those things
just slowed the pace down and caused some minor confusion over who was
‘speaking’ in the book. I preferred reading Mary’s storyline though I could have
done without her forced romance with George Vanderbilt. It felt like the author
was trying to tick off boxes with that. It didn’t seem real to me in the
storyline and was quite stiff.
Even with those few issues, BROOKLYN
ON FIRE was an engaging
historical mystery that kept my attention to the very end. If you enjoy a
character that tries to turn social mores upside down and try to make her
dreams come true, then you might enjoy this second book in the Mary Handley
series. I do caution you that you should read book one as I mentioned as there
is a large cast of characters that are mentioned as well as events that
happened in book one as well. I think I might pick up book one, Second Street
Station, and see if I can get into this story a bit better later on. I look
forward to seeing where this author goes in the series.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement
This is an objective review and not an endorsement
No comments:
Post a Comment