While reading Murder in the Bowery, by Victoria Thompson, I could just imagine this story as a movie, with William Powell and Myrna Loy playing the parts of Frank and Sarah Malloy. Just as Powell and Loy did such a wonderful job portraying Nick and Nora, the wonderful husband and wife socialites who dabbled in crime solving for the fun of it, Frank takes his wife Sarah along to assist him in crime solving in this entertaining historical mystery novel.
It is such fun to read about this romantic couple, along with Frank's partner Gino and his love interest Maeve, who is also the nanny for Sarah and Frank's children. Maeve also has wonderful ideas for decorating and is helping Sarah refurbish an old house into a maternity clinic and hospital. Sarah, who by profession is really a midwife, will be helping the women of the poorer New York neighborhoods who cannot afford health care. There are so many different storylines working at the same time in this novel. But of course in the end, it all pulls together and is tied in a neat package.
There is a young newspaper boy killed during the news strike of 1899, with all the historically accurate detail of the lifestyle of the newsies and gangsters in the Bowery of New York during this time period. There is the story of New York high society and how you can fall from the social register and clubs as easily as marrying beneath your station. There is the delicate way author Thompson presents the murder of a young society girl who has a troubled past.
Intertwined with the details leading up to the discovery of the murderer, is the relationships of not only the woman killed and all her associates, but the development of the private detectives and their personal relationships. This is a continuation of a well created series with Frank and Gino solving crimes in the City, while Sarah and Maeve not only assist them but help young indigent women.
What a wonderful premise for a mystery series.
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