Death of a Muckraker
Since I caught up on Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight Mysteries last year, it’s been longer than usual since I caught up with Frank, Sarah, and the rest of the characters. I’ve definitely missed them, so I was happy to see them again in Murder in Rose Hill.
For those new to the series, this is book 27 in the series. At this point, it is 1901. Frank Malloy retired from the New York City police department when he came into money, and he married Sarah. Together, they continue to solve any cases they come across including those for clients to come by Frank’s private investigation business.
This book opens on September 6, 1901, when Sarah meets a young woman named Louisa who is researching an article she is writing for a magazine on patent medicine. A few days later, Louisa’s father hires Frank. Someone has killed Louisa, and he wants to know who did it. As Frank and Sarah begin their investigation, they learn that little of what Louisa told Sarah was true. But did those lies lead to her death?
It was fabulous to be back with these characters again. Yes, Gino and Maeve are helping out as always, and we even get to see Sarah’s parents. I always like it when all the supporting players are part of the book. We finally got back to an ongoing storyline that I felt had backtracked in the last few books, and I enjoyed that. I continue to love the bits of humor as the characters interact as well.
The mystery itself isn’t the strongest in the series. Don’t misunderstand, it was still very entertaining. But it didn’t have quite the twists and turns I expected. Or maybe that was because I honed in on the killer early on and had to wait for the characters to catch up. The suspects didn’t seem quite as sharp as normal, either. Again, none of it was bad, but I know the series can be better than this.
Even though this is a historical fiction series, the books are sometimes a little vague on the exact year and date. That’s not the case here since the book opens on the same day as a very specific historical event. I’ve known this would have to be featured at some point if the series ever got to this date. Long term readers will know why. I’ll be interested to see if this impacts any future books in the series.
This series has many loyal readers after all these years, and they will be happy to lose themselves in Murder in Rose Hill. I know I was.
Travel back in time with the rest of the Gaslight Mysteries.
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