Description (from cover): “Midwife Sarah Brandt Malloy and her detective husband, Frank, must discover who killed a prominent–but despised– society banker before an innocent family is destroyed in Murder on Wall Street, an all-new Gaslight Mystery in the USA Today bestselling series.
Reformed gangster Jack Robinson is working hard to bolster his image in Gilded Age New York City society as he prepares to become a new father. But when Hayden Norcross, the man who nearly ruined his wife, is shot in cold blood, Jack knows the police will soon come knocking on his door. Frank Malloy has to agree–things don’t look good for Jack. But surely a man as unlikeable as Hayden had more than a few enemies. And it’s soon clear that plenty of the upper echelon as well as the denizens of the most squalid areas of the city seem to have hated him.
Sarah and Frank have their work cut out for them. As the daughter of the elite Decker family, Sarah has access to the social circles Hayden frequented, and the more she learns about his horrific treatment of women, the more disturbed she becomes. And as Frank investigates, he finds that Hayden had a host of unsavory habits that may have hastened his demise. But who finally killed him? Sarah and Frank must put the pieces together quickly before time runs out and Jack’s hard-won new life and family are ripped apart.”
My Thoughts:
This book is #24 and the most recent release in the beloved Gaslight Mysteries series by Victoria Thompson. I have always highly recommended this series and have reviewed other books in this series on this blog. If you haven’t read this series and love historical mysteries, I suggest you look into these books as they have never disappointed this reader. I do, however, recommend reading them in order for character development and context. While reading this book I felt like I was reuniting with old friends. Sarah and Frank have now found themselves involved in yet another murder mystery when a family friend is the top suspect in an investment banker’s murder. Investment banker, Hayden Norcross, wasn’t a very pleasant person and had numerous enemies who all had motives for his murder. Frank and Sarah use their connections to investigate the murder and hunt for the killer and character favorites Gino and Maeve make appearances to assist them in their investigations.
This novel takes the reader through New York City during the gilded age where automobiles are first being seen on the streets competing with horse drawn carriages. Where society is struggling to find new norms in a new world where women and the lower societal classes are starting to make a voice and name for themselves. Sarah has always defied the social restrictions of the era, but it is interesting to see how society as a whole is starting to move in that direction as well. I find that Thompson is highly attentive to historical details and that delights this historical mystery reader. I personally like to get a sense of how people really lived during the historical period that the author is writing about and Thompson is stellar in achieving this in her books and you get a real sense of how things really were.
This book was an engaging and enjoyable read. I could hardly put it down, but then again that goes for all of the books in this series. The plot was well written and while there wasn’t as much character development in this new book as there have been in previous installments, it still was fun to read. I am anxious to get my hands on the next book in this series. I have found in my reading experience that some of the series that have numerous books in them tend to get stale as you continue to read along in the series. That is definitely not the case with this series. Thompson does a good job of keeping her series readers engaged and coming back for more. The only bad thing about this book was when I was finished, I wanted more.
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Title: Murder on Wall Street
Author: Victoria Thompson
Series: Gaslight Mysteries #24
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: April 27, 2021
Pages: 331
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon
Disclaimer: This book was selected by myself at the library and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
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