Murder on Madison Square - Historical Mystery Review

Goodreads: Murder on Madison Square (Gaslight Mystery #25) by Victoria Thompson

Rating: Really Liked It!
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Former policeman Frank Malloy is frustrated when a woman requests his private detective services to implicate her wealthy husband in adultery, the only legal grounds for divorce in New York state. Although Mrs. Bing seems genuinely distressed about her marriage and desperate to end it, she refuses to tell Frank the reason she absolutely must divorce her husband and admits she has no legal grounds. Frank explains he won't manufacture evidence for her and sends her on her way.

The following week, Frank and Sarah happen to be attending the first ever auto show in Madison Square Garden when they meet the woman's husband, Alfred Bing, who has invested in a company that produces one of the electric motorcars on display. A few days later, the newspapers report that millionaire Alvin Bing has been found dead, pinned beneath one of the wheels of his very own motorcar. But who was driving it? The obvious suspect is Mrs. Bing, but Frank and Sarah find that nothing is as it seems in their puzzling, dangerous search for truth.

Genre: Mystery - Historical

Why I Picked This Book:  I love this series and this one sounded really interesting.

My Impression: Right from the first page I was hooked and completely reminded of just why I love this series.  Thompson has created a world with fully developed characters and light with plenty of danger lurking in the corners and it was a delight to revisit it.  

The team of Frank, Sarah, Gino and Maeve reminds me a bit of the character dynamics in Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby series but without quite as much tension.  It was seen to see Gino in his element as his main passion, automobiles, is an important element in this mystery.  One of the reasons I love historical fiction is that I get to pick up bits of knowledge that I wouldn't otherwise come across and that was the case in this book.  The history of automobiles has never really interested me in the slightest but I feel like I learned so much about it in this book without it weighing down the story and getting in the way of the mystery.

This mystery is quite the puzzle with a different dynamic than I've seen before.  The victim and his family led complicated lives and it was interesting to see it all unravel.  I've only read the most recent few mysteries in this series and have really come to love these characters.  This was a fast paced intriguing read that kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Absolutely!  I'm looking forward to going back and reading the beginning books and will be looking for new books by this author.

Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy mysteries I think this series is a must try.  While the more books in this series you read the easier time you'll have connecting with the characters I do think this is a series you can start anywhere.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *