Murder on Lenox Hill by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 7:
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 teenage daughter is with child. It's a mystery, however, since the young woman-mentally still a child herself-is never left alone.
I think Murder on Lenox hill is my favorite in the series so far. It kept me guessing for most of the book and there were two mysteries to figure out in this one. One of them was pretty easy to figure out, but the other one not as easy.
Five people confessing to the murder made this one pretty entertaining. Sarah and Malloy are still somewhat clueless when it comes to solving the murders at times, which still annoys me. However, I've loved watching the slow changes in how Sarah and Malloy interact with each other. It just gets better and better.
Murder in Little Italy by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 8:
When midwife Sarah Brandt visits Little Italy to check up on a new mother who delivered her baby just the day before, she finds the young woman dead. The family insists that the death was from complications of childbirth. Sarah thinks not.
This has got to be my least favorite book of the series. I did not enjoy this one as much as the others mainly because the family that the mystery surrounded just really grated on my nerves. None of them were very likeable, and I had a hard time caring what happened to any of them. And once again the mystery was easy to solve. I also would have liked more development of the subplots that have been a part of the series, but hardly anything happened there.
Murder in Chinatown by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 9:
Sarah Brandt has made her uneasy way to Chinatown to deliver a baby. There she meets a group of Irish women who, completely alone at Ellis Island, married Chinese men in the same predicament. But even as a new century dawns, New Yorkers still cling to their own kind, scorning children of mixed races.
This was a big improvement over the last book in the series. I loved Murder in Chinatown but like most of the other books in this series I figured this one out early on. As I've said many times before, I really think that Sarah and Malloy are written to be a bit too slow sometimes. It was pretty obvious who the killer was based on certain evidence that was found in the book, but it was just disregarded. Things like that keep me from giving these books 5 stars. I give most of them 4 stars based on how much I enjoy being immersed in the world and the characters. If I was just basing it on the mystery aspect I would probably give them 2 or 3.
The developing relationship between the characters is what keeps me reading this series more than anything. The relationship between Sarah and Frank is moving at a snail’s pace, and I would usually be frustrated with how slow it’s moving, but for some reason in this series it hasn't bothered me yet.
Murder on Bank Street by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 10:
In the four years since her husband’s death, midwife Sarah Brandt has become an angel of mercy in the tenements of turn-of-the-century New York. Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy has taken up the task of solving the murder of Dr. Tom Brandt. But the shocking revelation he discovers may destroy Sarah—and Malloy’s hopes for any future with her.
In this installment of the Gaslight Mysteries the mystery of Tom's death is finally solved. Murder on Bank Street ended up being one of my favorite books in the series. The mystery was not so obvious, at least not all aspects of it.
I enjoyed Maeve's part in solving the mystery, but at the same time missed Sarah through a lot of it. I do understand why Sarah might have taken a back seat on solving this one since it was so close to home, and she was afraid of finding out the truth even though she wanted very much to know it.
The lady detective was also an interesting character and I think it would be great if Maeve did more work with her. I was a bit frustrated at where it ended though. Finally Sarah has stated plainly how she feels to Malloy and it ends before we can find out what he does about it. Couldn't we have at least gotten one more paragraph?
Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 11:
Midwife and sleuth Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy must protect Sarah's mother from scandal after she tries to contact her dead daughter during a séance that sends one of the attendees into the afterlife.
At the end of the previous book, Murder on Bank Street, Sarah, in a round-about way, pretty much confesses how she feels about Malloy. I was really hoping to get more of that in this book, but unfortunately at the start of Murder on Waverly Place they haven't seen each other for weeks and we are not filled in on anything that did or didn't happen at the end of the last book. Did he kiss her? Did they say more than that to each other? I was dying to know! All we get regarding their relationship are a few thoughts from each of them. Sarah's thoughts acknowledge that she is in love with Malloy, and Malloy's thoughts are more in line with fighting and ignoring his feelings for Sarah because they don't belong to the same class. I will say that is the only disappointing thing about this book. The mystery was very good and kept me guessing. Mystery-wise I would say this is one of the best in the series so far.
Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean
Gaslight Mysteries book 12:
When a wealthy businessman is murdered, Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy is assigned to investigate, even though the crime is out of his jurisdiction. The reason he soon realizes, is that the man has a deaf daughter—and it is well known that Malloy’s own son attends the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.
Murder on Lexington Avenue was quite enjoyable. This author has definitely gotten better at writing the mystery aspect of these books. They are not nearly as predictable as they were in the beginning. The relationship between Sarah and Malloy still has not progressed though, and that has become very frustrating. The things I enjoyed reading about the most in this book were the two different types of schools for the deaf and about the opposition to ASL back then. I had no idea that Alexander Graham Bell felt the way he did about it. That was a bit of an eye opener for me.
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