Tuesday, February 28, 2017

MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press
Published:   January 3, 2017
ISBN:        978-1250072245
Genre:       Non-fiction, Biography
Format:     Print
Obtained via:  Library    
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com
 

FIVE HEARTS

 

As the calendar rolled over to 1899 to the early 1900’s few women, if any, attended law school.  If they did, it was almost as an afterthought—in night classes. One such woman was Grace Humiston.  But Grace was much more than a dilatant sitting in a night class. Law school was only the beginning of what Grace became and the impact she had on not only her home city of New York, but as far reaching as Italy.  In a world where the women who did pursue higher education and particularly law school, for most it was to meet a husband or learn a bit about their family finances.  Grace had something else in mind. Her professor, seeing how unique and talented she was quickly moved her to the day classes.  Upon her graduation she set about to help the poor of New York receive justice.  Bit by bit she took on cases of the people who could not fend for themselves—abusive husbands, a slave labor camp in the south and saving an innocent man from death row. Each case led her closer and closer to perhaps the most important not only her career, but in shaping how missing persons are handled even today in the City of New York.

I do not normally seek out non-fiction and even less biographies.  I read, for the most part, to step away from my everyday life and, while I love my day job, sometimes I need to go, at least in my mind, somewhere else. When I saw the blurb for Brad Ricca’s Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, however, I had to pick it up. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was treated to an even better read than I anticipated. Humiston was not only an attorney and a detective, she was a force of nature. The first female deputy attorney It is through Ricca’s amazing story telling that Grace comes to live on the pages of a book that, once you start, you simply cannot put down. He tells her story like a well told mystery. He draws you into Grace’s life and you cannot wait to see what she will do next. While I will tell my friends about a book I’m reading, I rarely go out of my way to discuss and encourage them to pick up and read one. Ricca’s Mrs. Sherlock Holmes so captured my attention I’ve told most of my friends and co-workers that this is one book you do not want to miss. If you read only one book this year, make it this one.

 
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 


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