The Dead Cry Justice (A Gilded Age Mystery #6) by Rosemary Simpson

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong language, Child trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Prostitution 

 

Heiress-turned-sleuth Prudence MacKenzie and ex-Pinkerton Geoffrey Hunter step out of the elite society of Gilded Age New York as they venture into the city’s crime ridden streets and most dangerous neighborhoods to search for two missing children . . .

THE DEAD CRY JUSTICE

May 1890: As NYU Law School finally agrees to admit female law students, Judge MacKenzie’s daughter Prudence weighs her choices carefully. Chief among her concerns is how her decision would affect the Hunter and MacKenzie Investigative Law agency and her professional and personal relationship with the partner who is currently recuperating from a near fatal shooting.

But an even more pressing issue presents itself in the form of a street urchin, whose act of petty theft inadvertently leads Prudence to a badly beaten girl he is protecting. Fearing for the girl’s life, Prudence rushes her to the Friends Refuge for the Sick Poor, run by the compassionate Charity Sloan. When the boy and girl slip out of their care and run away, Prudence suspects they are fleeing a dangerous predator and is desperate to find them.

Aided by the photographer and social reformer Jacob Riis and the famous journalist Nellie Bly, Prudence and Geoffrey scour the tenements and brothels of Five Points. Their only clue is a mysterious doll with an odd resemblance to the missing girl. But as the destitute orphans they encounter whisper the nickname of the killer who stalks them—Il diavolo—Prudence and Geoffrey must race against time to find the missing children before their merciless enemies do . . .

 

I really enjoyed this latest book in The Gilded Age Mystery Series. This series has been up and down for me, but I thought the plot line for this one was pretty good. There were some things that were hard to read about with the child trafficking, but nothing was described in too much detail. I really felt heartsick for those children as I was reading, and I liked that the author was able to invoke that much emotion from me.

Prudence once again did some reckless things that irritated me, this is mainly due to the fact that she takes some chances that I think she shouldn't take, by not letting anyone know what she is going to do. I get why she thinks she has to hide it, but it's still stupid of her. Also, she makes a really dumb mistake at one point that puts her in real danger, and it was so irritating. I want to think of her as a smart woman, and she supposedly is, but then she goes and makes this blunder and it ruins any credibility she has, and it just makes her seem silly, and then the men in her life seem justified for not wanting her to put herself in any sort of danger.

I was hoping for more relationship progress than what was actually in the book, but at least the series seems to be headed in that direction. There are also some random odd POV changes, like that of the dog and cat, and I still don't think the animals in this series behave like real animals would behave, but overall I liked this book and I do want to continue to read more of this series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.