These books are enjoyable historical mysteries with strong characters and interesting plots. Reading just one in this series is not enough. Every book provides insight to the characters' background and their continual development.
Every book is suspenseful and provides accurate detail of the places and characteristics of the time period in which it is set.
This was a fun book! I've never read something that's considered a "cozy mystery" until now, and I REALLY enjoyed it! So much so that I had to go to the library to get the first two in the series. Luckily with this series, it seems like you can pick it up almost anywhere and you'll be fine as Thompson does fill you in on the necessary details from past stories to help you follow along, but without getting bogged down too much. The main character, Sarah Brandt, is a midwife in NYC near the turn-of-the-century. From what I can tell Thompson did a great job developing her character as she is interesting and you care about her throughout the story. She is called to "Little Italy" to help deliver the baby of a restaurant owner's youngest son's Irish wife. The next day, the wife is dead. Sarah must investigate to find out if it's something that she did or if it's an unknown complication (or murder, but she keeps that in the back of her mind at first). Her friend, Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy, gets roped into Sarah's investigation and with the help of a young Italian police officer (to help appease the family since Frank is Irish), they try to solve what happened. We also get a glimpse at Sarah's personal life at home as well as an ongoing investigation into the death of her husband (which occurred years before this story takes place). I'm guessing that's a common theme throughout the series, much as Monk's wife's murder is a common reoccurring theme on the TV series Monk). Thompson does a GREAT job bringing you into this time period. It feels like she really did the leg-work to make sure facts/ people were accurate to their portrayals. You get a real sense of what NYC must have been like during this era, but without it getting thrown into your face every five seconds. Anyway, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a fun, relatively light read! :-)
This takes place when Teddy Roosevelt was Commissioner of the New York Police Department, and his friend, Mrs. Brandt, a midwife, has to go her patients in a horse drawn wagon. Mrs. Brandt's friend, Malloy, of the police department, has been put in charge of solving a murder that was discovered by Mrs. Brandt, after her delivering the victim of a child. Despite the supposed tension between the Italian Black Hand mob and the Irish Tammany Hall, there is still a rather homey quality to the story. It has the ambiance of an old cofmnirtable shoe. Nice read.
An outstanding historical series....In this addition Sarah Brandt is summoned to deliver a baby that is thought to be premature....In actuality the healthy baby boy is full term...the problem - the "father" cannot be the father....There are enough tensions and hatreds between the Irish mother and the Italian (supposed) father's relatives to fill Malloy's jail when the baby's mother is found dead the day after the delivery. She has, of course been murdered. Malloy is charged with solving this political hotbed PDQ....never mind that there are outside influences from Tammeney Hall...the "Black Hand" and riotous gangs....Malloy is also given permission by Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to officially reopen the case of the murder of Dr. Thomas Brandt.....
Karen F. (cosmichomicide) reviewed Murder in Little Italy (Gaslight, Bk 8) on + 134 more book reviews 
