In January 1896 the author of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan
Doyle, comes to New York with his wife, Louisa for an American tour. While staying at The New Britannic Louisa
falls and sprains her ankle, making her stay behind while Arthur continues on
his tour. When a woman turns up
mutilated in Bowery, Louisa recognizes her from a sketch in the paper as a
woman she saw in the hotel lobby. Louisa
quickly becomes obsessed with the woman’s horrible death and starts putting
together clues of murder. The story
comes back to the hotel and The Butcher who is killing woman and mutilating
them.
I am not a big Sherlock Holmes fan, but know of his
stories. I was a little worried that
this would be a write over of Sherlock Holmes and was very pleased when it was
not. This is a story of a woman, who in
a time that woman were expected to sit and behave, takes the initiative to
solve the Butcher Murders. Even as she
hits wall against wall, usually put there by a man, she does not give up and
knows that she has details that will help catch the murdered. Louisa is a character that leads a very
sheltered life, but is not scared to step outside of that shelter and get a
look at the rough life and use her knowledge.
The tours and history of “Old New York” were amazing. I truly enjoyed hearing and visualizing the
brownstones and the other points of interest while Louisa was on her various
rides around the city. The corruption
of the police was something I had heard about but never really read about. It was hard for me to accept, but easier to
imagine it. Teddy Roosevelt became a
favorite character of mine, even though he was not well liked with his
co-workers. He was a moral character and
did not stand for the corruption.
Although this is not a book I would normally read I truly
enjoyed it and would happily and easily highly recommend this book to others.
This sounds interesting, even though - as you - I wouldn't normally choose this book. Thanks for the review.
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