Murder on Pleasant Avenue

February 17, 2020
In Edgar finalist Thompson’s cleverly plotted 23rd whodunit set in early 20th-century New York City (after 2019’s Murder on Trinity Place), PI Frank Malloy and his partner, Gino Donatelli, are approached by Donatelli’s sister-in-law, Teo, who’s distraught over the kidnapping of Jane Harding. Miss Harding, who worked at the Daughters of Hope Mission, an East Harlem settlement house with which Malloy’s wife was once involved, disappeared after being stopped by an unidentified man on the street. Teo fears that the Black Hand, a notorious criminal organization, has abducted Miss Harding for ransom. The gang recently kidnapped the wife of the employer of Teo’s husband, only releasing her after a month in captivity when the extortionate payment was raised. The efforts to rescue Miss Harding lead to a murder under circumstances that implicate Donatelli, forcing his friends to solve the crime to absolve him. Thompson makes effective use of real-life figures, such as Joseph Petrosino, one of the NYPD’s first Italian officers. Fans of husband-and-wife sleuthing partners such as Thomas and Charlotte Pitt will be pleased. Agent: Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary.

March 1, 2020
A plucky group of early-20th-century detectives (Murder on Trinity Place, 2019, etc.) takes on the Black Hand. The leads include Frank Malloy and Gino Donatelli, former police officers who started a detective agency after an unexpected legacy made Malloy a wealthy man; Malloy's wife, Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy society family who runs a maternity clinic for the poor; and their nanny, Maeve, a budding sleuth who works in Malloy's office. All of them leap to attention when Gino's sister-in-law Teodora reports that Jane Harding, a worker at the settlement house where Teo volunteers, has been kidnapped by the Black Hand, who are notorious for abducting the wives and children of anyone who can afford to pay ransom. The New York Police Department is corrupt, and the local Italian immigrants never report crimes. Mr. McWilliam, who runs the settlement house, had asked Jane to marry him, but she'd asked him to allow her to experience more of the single life before deciding. Seeking clues, Sarah visits Mrs. Cassidi, an earlier kidnapping victim who's refused to talk to anyone, in hopes that her nursing experience and sympathetic manner will get results. Mrs. Cassidi admits to being raped but knows little about where she was held captive, a quiet place in a house where she could hear children. Soon after Nunzio Esposito, a leader of the Black Hand, tells Malloy that no one's been taken from the settlement house, Jane suddenly reappears but refuses to discuss where she's been. Lisa Prince, Jane's well-to-do cousin, reluctantly agrees to take her in even though Jane's jealous of her wealth and can be unpleasant to deal with. When Esposito's found murdered in a flat he rented for his mistress, Gino, who's just arrived on the scene, is arrested. Now the clever sleuths must solve both the murder and the abductions to clear Gino's name. A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars' interpersonal dynamics.

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