Book Review: An Orphan of Hell’s Kitchen by Liz Freeland (Louise Faulk #3)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Interesting historical backdrop to time with characters we love

Cons: The pacing to the mystery doesn’t work

The Bottom Line:

Louise’s last case

Uneven pacing but nice

To see her again

Was it Murder or Suicide?

I’m making a conscious effort to finish off several series I know have ended this year, and one of those was the Louise Faulk Mysteries.  I only had An Orphan of Hell’s Kitchen, the third in the series, to go, so it was an easy one to meet my goal.  Sadly, it wasn’t the strongest ending to the series.

The series is set in the 1910’s where Louise is one of the first women in the NYPD.  Typically, that just means guarding the female prisoners, but Louise still manages to find herself involved in some murders.

This book opens on Thanksgiving 1914 when Louise is called from a boring shift to go with an officer to a crime scene.  A prostitute has been found dead in her apartment along with one of her twin sons.  The other one is still alive.  Her fellow officers are quick to rule it a suicide, but Louise is certain something else happened to the woman, so she starts an off-the-books investigation into what happened.  Can she figure it out without losing her job?

Obviously, this is a darker book than the cozies I read.  However, the worst of it is in the setup, so if the teaser intrigues you, you’ll be fine picking up the book to figure out what Louise uncovers.  Overall, I’d put the book squarely in the traditional camp.  Louise is enough of an amateur that this really isn’t a police procedural, but it’s got that gray to it that is evident in the set up.

Sadly, there the book really goes wrong in the pacing.  I get what the author was doing with the plot, but the problem is it didn’t work.  The middle turns into a bit of a slog along the way.  However, when we do get to the climax, we get a suspense scene and a wrap up that answers our questions.

Quite often, you can tell when an author knows the series is ending, and they wrap up any on-going storylines.  That wasn’t the case here.  Don’t worry, there aren’t any cliffhangers, but there were some things in Louise’s life that weren’t wrapped up in a nice bow.  I’m actually not complaining since it gives us a chance to fill in what happened to her.

If you’ve read the first two books, you’ll be glad to know that we do get to see the regulars again, and I enjoyed our time with them.  We did see advances in their lives even if things weren’t wrapped up for us.

Since this book is set in 1914, World War I has started, although the US hasn’t entered it yet.  This provides an interesting backdrop to much of the action, and I enjoyed that aspect of the story.

The majority of the book takes place in December, and it is fun watching some Christmas creep into the book as the story unfolds.

It’s a shame that Louise didn’t get a stronger send off.  Those who enjoyed the first two will still be glad they picked up An Orphan of Hell’s Kitchen.