"is a tremendous entry in one of the best historical series on the market today"

Just back from delivering a baby boy, widow midwife Sarah Brandt returns home to the tenement apartment she shares with Maeve and four year old Aggie. Maeve informs her that a respectable looking older gent came by and left her note. Mr. and Mrs. Linton of the Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood Lenox Hill would like her to visit them at her convenience.

Sarah takes the elevated train and a street car to the Lintons' home where they ask her to determine whether their beloved teenage daughter Gracie, who is mentally a young child, is pregnant. Sarah confirms that the teen is six months pregnant, but neither parent can understand when it could have happened because the child is never alone. Sarah asks her friend police detective sergeant Frank Malloy to investigate. Though no crime has been committed and no payment for his services will be remitted, Frank reluctantly agrees. However, someone poisons the minister of the congregation that the Lintons belong to. Frank and Sarah believe there is a link between the homicide and the pregnancy, but everyone connected seems so respectable.

Though a Gaslight era mystery, the events of MURDER ON LENOX HILL could have come out of recent headlines. The story line is fast-paced with a strong intrepid protagonist and a powerful deep secondary cast including real figures like Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt. Readers will appreciate the "innocence" of Gracie and root for Sarah to learn who impregnated her and when since she already ruled out the obvious, fatherly incest. This is a tremendous entry in one of the best historical series on the market today and investigating her spouse's murder from four years ago may be next.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 28, 2005

Summary

A midwife working in the tenements of turn-of-the-last-century New York, Sarah Brandt is summoned by the wealthy Lintons to confirm their worst fear: their teenaged daughter is with child. It's a mystery, however, since the young woman—mentally still a child herself—is never left alone.

With the help of her friend Detective Sergeant Malloy, Sarah vows to crack this delicate case, especially since suspicion is on those close to the Lintons. Then, when one of the suspects is poisoned, Sarah knows she must uncover the truth before more lives are ruined.