Murder on Pleasant Avenue by Victoria Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean



A victim is found, brutally murdered and the police are certain they've caught the killer. Their only suspect: Gino Donatelli.

Frank and Sarah know Gino is innocent but the police have a one-track mind. Once Frank struck it rich and left their ranks taking Gino with him, there has been a simmering resentment in the department. And now, someone has pulled out all the stops to make it look like Gino is the only one who could have committed the crime.

With the clock ticking and evidence mounting against their friend, Sarah and Frank will try to unravel a treacherous plot before Gino is sent up the river for good.

It's hard to believe I've read 23 books in this series. This one was ok, but not one of my favorites. As usual with this series, the mystery was pretty easy to solve. My usual complaint about Frank and Sarah being too dumbed down apply here, but they weren't as clueless as they've been in the past. Also, as usual, there is a nice bit of New York City history added into the story. This time around it's the Black Hand gang in Little Italy. There were also interesting tidbits about Theodore Roosevelt being nominated for vice president, and electric lighting being installed in Frank and Sarah's house that I thought added a nice historical touch to the book.

One thing I especially liked was how Maeve was frustrated at being sidelined as a secretary for the detective agency, but at one point takes things into her own hands with the investigation. I always like when Maeve gets involved. I also really enjoyed the part where she meets Gino's family. That was priceless.

After reading 23 books I do feel like something exciting needs to happen to breathe new life into the series. Despite there being one development that I've been waiting several books for, this book still felt a little run of the mill.