Victoria Thompson, Murder in Chinatown

Murder in Chinatown

Victoria Thompson

Berkley, June 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 0425215318

As the new century brings new hope for many, there remains much of the prejudice, especially towards mixed racial couples and their offspring. Perhaps the most scorned mixed couples are that of big strapping Irish females and their smaller Chinese husbands; they met on Ellis Island, where both impoverished groups were alone, with no opposite gender available from their race.

Midwife Sarah Brandt is in Chinatown tending to pregnant Irish expatriate Cora Lee, whose labor pains prove false. Cora's teenage half-Chinese niece Angel rushes inside the apartment to see her. She begs for Cora to help her, as her father demands she marry elderly restaurateur Mr. Wong. When she obtains no help from Cora, Angel vanishes. Although Sarah searches for the missing girl, she assumes Angel is a runaway teen. However, when Angel is found dead in a nearby alley, Sarah knows the child had an Irish lover, but not who he is. She asks her friend Detective Frank Malloy to investigate.

The latest Gaslight Mystery is terrific, although the whodunit comes late and enhances the deep look at early twentieth century racism in New York. The vivid story line brings home the down side of tenement living in the slums, as marriages are economic necessities. The final twist will stun the audience, but it is the discerning look at life during the Gaslight era that makes Victoria Thompson's newest historical a must read for sub-genre fans.