Brighton follows up his gripping turn-of-the-last-century mystery The Unsealing with this return to “The Electric City” of Buffalo, New York, in the early 1900s and to intrepid society sleuth Sarah Payne, now at last bringing to life her Sherlock Holmes-inspired dream of being a professional detective. This entry finds Sarah founding her own agency while snooping around another case that exposes the dark secrets of Ashwood, the fashionable upper-middle-class enclave of a city still reeling from the assassination of President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition. But now Sarah’s a potential suspect, too. The first moments of the new year see the murder of Ed Miller, the proprietor of an envelope manufacturing company, a man going through a messy divorce—and linked, romantically, to Sarah herself.Setting this series apart from other historical mysteries is Brighton’s deft hand at capturing dishy lives of long ago, as his Ashwood residents gossip, scheme, preen, and love. There’s nothing genteel about this depiction, and the chatter, both elegant and earthy, has the feel of a great cocktail party: “I don’t care a fig for the vote,” one woman declares. “Let men pretend they make the decisions. I am happy behind the scenes.” But the novel’s also a dead-serious immersion in its milieu, attentive to issues of a woman’s reputation—Sarah draws some notoriety for living apart from her husband—like unjust divorce laws and rampant sexism, all as the press is eager to expose the Ashwood set’s “adultery, homewrecking, ungovernable passions.”
All that’s still fascinating today, of course, and Brighton depicts them with wit and empathy as Sarah faces grief, a corrupt D.A., and a society disinclined to support her independence. The tangled mysteries compel, turning on new-fangled technology like photographs and phonograph cylinders, and Brighton brings full complex life to several engaging women characters, including Miller’s widow. The novel’s long, but Brighton blends its elements into a polished, rewarding page-turner.
Takeaway: This polished page-turner finds scandal and a smart mystery in 1902 Buffalo.
Comparable Titles: Caleb Carr, Steven Price’s A June of Ordinary Murders.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
