Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Second Street Station by Laurence H. Levy


 I eagerly looked forward to diving into my latest BloggingForBooks offering called Second Street Station : A Mary Handley Mystery. Old fashioned words like "Delightful!" and "Marvelous!" come to mind when I started writing up this review.
 The book takes place in the late 1880's when the central character - Mary Handley - is fired from her hat factory sweatshop and hired by the New York police department to help solve a murder.. Mary's a brash and sassy character who doesn't take the guff from the other guys on the force and sets out to prove herself as a detective like a 19th century Nancy Drew.
 It's a real treat each time she encounters a famous person from the era like Edison, Tesla, J.P. Morgan, and the Pembertons from Coca Cola fame. It's a breath of fresh air from the past with an entertaining whodunit, fun characters, and an era perfect for escapism.
  The last chapter gives a teaser for the next Mary Handley mystery which appears to take Mary to Chicago for a while although the title is Brooklyn Burning. It won't be released until spring of 2016, but it already has a spot on my To-Read list.
 If you enjoyed this book, I think you would also enjoy a book called The Interpretation of Murder; which involves the historical characters of Dr.Freud and Carl Yung setting out to solve a murder in New York City.