Mary Handley, the heroine of the book, is a spunky and independent young woman who has ambitions to be a detective, following in the footsteps of her fictional hero Sherlock Holmes. Mary's "real job" is in a bookshop, but her employer is very supportive of her ambition and even goes so far as to have business cards printed for her.
Brooklyn on Fire is the second Mary Handley mystery, and is filled with details of life in Brooklyn in the 1890s. In this book, Levy gives us a clear picture of society in the late nineteenth century, with its bigotry and class warfare, along with the limits that were placed on women in that time period.
This is the story of a murder that didn't happen, along with several that did, all solved by Mary's detective skills and her determination. Along the way, the story intertwines the tenements of Brooklyn and the highest levels of society in Manhattan, including families with names like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and Carnegie.
Brooklyn on Fire offered a plot full of twists and turns, and I was kept guessing right up to the end. This is a well-written tale, with well developed characters, and lots of historical detail. I liked that very much.
On the down side, the romance that developed between Mary and George Vanderbilt (he of Biltmore House fame) stretches the imagination a bit much, and really seems a bit overdone. There is no way a relationship between a Vanderbilt from Manhattan and a butcher's daughter from Brooklyn would have happened in that time period, and George and Mary certainly would not have traveled alone together in that era as they did in this story. In addition, the language was occasionally more crude than I cared for.
Even with those minor flaws, anyone with an interest in mysteries and historical fiction would likely enjoy getting to know Mary Handley.
I received a copy of Brooklyn on Fire from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
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