Murder on Trinity Place by Victoria Thompson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean



The year of 1899 is drawing to a close. Frank and Sarah Malloy are getting ready to celebrate the New Year at Trinity Church when they notice Mr. Pritchard, a relative of their neighbor's behaving oddly and annoying the other revelers. The next morning Sarah and Frank are horrified to learn Pritchard was murdered sometime in the night. Frank and Sarah delve into Pritchard's past and realize there may have been a deadly side to the dawning of the new century.

This was a very enjoyable installment in the gaslight mysteries series. I liked it better than the last book. The book begins with Frank and Sarah attending a dinner party at their neighbor Mrs. Ellsworth's house. Her recently married son Nelson and his wife Theda have also invited Theda's family to the dinner and it's a little tense as Theda's father is very opinionated and doesn't hesitate to let his opinions known when certain subjects come up. Ultimately the dinner ends in disaster and poor Theda is left in tears. One thing I noticed about this book is that the character of Mrs. Ellsworth is much more serious here. There are no silly superstitions mentioned this time around, but it made sense considering what was happening in the book.

As usual I figured out who the murderer was pretty easily, but this book actually did throw a couple of good red herrings in there. I actually attached a bit more to the murderer's motivations than what was concluded in the book though. One thing that does bother me about the murders in this series is that too many people are murdered that are somehow acquainted with Sarah and Frank. This is actually something that happens a lot in mystery series that can make them seem implausible. In this case though, with Frank being a private investigator there should be ample opportunity for the author to capitalize on that and have him investigate cases that have nothing to do with anyone he or Sarah knows. It would be so much more believable.

One thing I do really like about this series is that the author always adds in some real historical facts from the time period. I learned a few interesting things as I read this book that I didn't previously know. One is how Wall Street got its name. It was not at all what I expected. I also learned about the "milk wars" and what swill milk was. Another thing I learned about was the origins of the board game Life. It also seemed that there was some debate over whether the turn of the century should be celebrated in 1900 or 1901.

Like the last book in the series, this one included characters that we met in a previous book. I'm really liking that this seems to be a thing now in each book. This time around we revisit the character of Jack Robinson from Murder in the Bowery. Sarah plays matchmaker for Jack and one of the ladies staying in the clinic, and I liked that part of the story a lot. I would love to see more of them in future books.

I also have to mention one other thing that I loved about this book. Frank finally gets a motorcar!

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this book.