Saturday, February 17, 2018

book review: "What the Dead Leave Behind"...

... written by Rosemary Simpson, and published by Kensington Books in 2017. Not the type thing you would normally find me reading, though my choices are random and eclectic: whatever strikes my fancy when I go in the library and browse the shelves. Or something there has been a reference to in other printed matter: Time magazine or a book review that sounds interesting.

The sub title on this one 'A Gilded Age Mystery', makes me think there might be others by the same author? It's already back in the stacks, so I cannot look to see if she has written more in a similar vein. The story is set in the latter years of the 1800's, in New York City. The book is peopled by characters who are money-ed,would be considered upper crust, attorneys and doctors, who are rarely exposed to the seamier side of hardscrabble life in the city.

Prudence is the daughter of  judge, who recently died. The judge had been blackmailed into marrying a woman who is (obviously) deceitful, in the relationship for the money to be had when the judge mysteriously dies within a two years of the unexpected second marriage. The step-mother, is, as you might expect: wicked! Prudence, under age and sheltered, is left as the ward of the evil one, who contrives with her equally debauched brother to kill the man Prudence expects to marry, in order to control the estate left to Prudence. The deceased finance appears to have frozen to death, lost in a freak snowstorm.

Lots of intrigue. Plenty of sneaking around, slipping down dark corridors, peeping around corners, observing shady behavior. This girl is really smart, having been trained by her attorney dad to be cautious, constantly on the alert and aware of her surroundings. But hampered by the limitations society placed on females in this era when they were thought to be delicate and flighty, rather than capable and self-sufficient. A really interesting story, well worth staying up too late to see the baddies get their comeuppance.

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