February 25, 2019
The strangling death of priggish dairy owner Clarence Pritchard, found on the grounds of Manhattan’s Trinity Church on New Year’s Day 1900, drives Thompson’s discursive 22nd Gaslight mystery (after 2018’s Murder on Union Square). Pritchard’s bereft daughter, Theda Ellsworth, hires private detective Frank Malloy and his wife, Sarah, to find her father’s killer because the police seem uninterested in solving the case. Sarah is eager to help, since the Malloys saw Pritchard behaving strangely on New Year’s Eve, wandering around the crowd of celebrants in the street, trying to convince anyone who would listen that the new century actually begins in 1901. Frank discovers that Pritchard’s son, Harvey, a compulsive gambler, is deep in debt to a mobster who’s using the dairy’s milk trucks to transport stolen goods. When Harvey turns up strangled as well, Frank’s investigation is back to square one. The plot tends to wander and some loose ends are left dangling, but historical details about social conditions in turn-of-the-20th-century New York elevate an otherwise routine mystery. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary.
March 1, 2019
Who killed the milkman?Unlike other companies that keep cows in crowded and unhealthy conditions right in New York City and add things like chalk and plaster to make their milk look better, Clarence Pritchard's milk processing firm delivers pasteurized, unadulterated milk from upstate farms. The Pritchards' daughter, Theda, is married to Nelson Ellsworth, whose parents are neighbors of detectives Sarah and Frank Malloy (Murder on Union Square, 2018, etc.). Before they attend a dinner party at the Ellsworths' home, the Malloys are warned that Pritchard is seriously nettled that the upcoming year of 1900 will not be celebrated as the turn of the century. When Pritchard's body is found strangled on the first day of the new year (though not the first of the new century) after he's spent the night pestering people about his theory, it's clear that someone's paid off the police to ignore the case. Theda demands an investigation by Malloy and his partner, Gino Donatelli, both of whom were New York police officers before Frank's sudden wealth encouraged him to open a private investigation agency. Sarah, a former midwife from a society family, subsidizes a home for unwed mothers whose recent clients include Jocelyn Vane. Because Jocelyn's wealthy parents won't let her keep her child, Sarah hatches a plot to marry her to Black Jack Robinson, a handsome, wealthy, cultured criminal with aspirations to join society. Pritchard's murder is still unsolved when his son, Harvey, is also strangled. Malloy discovers that Mrs. Pritchard had a longtime lover who poses as a family friend and that Harvey's gambling addiction forced his father to allow someone to use their milk delivery wagons to move stolen goods. Since both deaths may be connected to deeper criminal enterprises, Malloy must be cautious in his investigation and rely on help from Robinson if he's not to become the next victim.Period details and charm abound in a mystery that packs some real surprises.
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March 15, 2019
In the shadow of magnificent Trinity Church in New York City, on the eve of the beginning of the twentieth century, a man is mysteriously murdered. On the day before the murder, police officer Frank Malloy and his wife, Sarah, attended a dinner party at which the victim, Mr. Pritchard, was present. This connection gives Frank an extra motivation for solving the murder. Solving any crime in New York City is a challenge, since much of the police force is easily bribed to look the other way. Frank must tread carefully between the powerful gangsters and the corrupt police who do their bidding, in a twisted plot of confusing allies and unknown assailants. This fast-paced historical mystery, the twenty-second in Thompson's long-running Gaslight series, again uses its New York City frame to good advantage. Recommend the series to Anne Perry fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
November 1, 2018
In this next in the "Gaslight Mystery" series from the Edgar and Agatha Award-nominated Thompson, Frank and Sarah Malloy are anticipating a joyous New Year's event at New York's Trinity Church--it's 1899--when they notice the relative of a neighbor meandering through the crowd. The next day, he's found dead, and guess who's investigating?
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