Author: Victoria Thompson
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 304
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐
Murder on Union Square
was the 21st book of the Gaslight Mysteries series, and so there was
much that I could not relate to. Even so, I plodded through, hoping the mystery
would make for enjoyable reading.
It didn’t.
Sarah and Frank
Malloy want to adopt Catherine, the illegitimate daughter of David Wilbanks and
actress Emma Hardy. Emma’s husband, actor Parnell Vaughn, is willing to sign
away his custody rights, but actress Eliza Grimes, who claims to be his
fiancée, insists on payment of $1000.
On the day when
Frank goes to the theatre to get Vaughn’s signature, he comes across the
bloodied body of Vaughn. Just then Eliza shows up and accuses Frank of having
murdered Vaughn.
Frank is arrested
and later released on bail. The lawyer assures Frank that he can bury the case
so he is free to live his life. But Frank is determined to solve the mystery
and expose the real killer.
Sarah and Frank
work jointly on the investigation, with Frank’s assistant Gino and the couple’s
nanny, Maeve, also aiding in the investigation.
The suspects are
Adelia Hawkes, who played the part of the leading lady to Vaughn’s leading man,
despite being Vaughn’s senior by 15 years, and who professed to be in love with
him. There is Adelia’s husband, Baxter, who must have resented his wife’s
sexual relationships with Vaughn.
There is Eliza,
who claims to be Vaughn’s fiancée, and Armistead Winters, the man who is in
love with Eliza, and resented her closeness with Vaughn.
Lastly, there is
theatrical agent Dinsmore who was the last to see Vaughn alive.
The background
became clear soon enough. Apparently, Frank ran a detective agency,
after having unceremoniously lost his job in the police force. And Sarah is a
former midwife who is building a maternity clinic.
Right away I must
say that I wasn’t too impressed with the mystery. It didn’t seem solid and
airtight, which is the impression that a good murder mystery should leave you with.
The
author indicates that the mystery is compounded by the fact that the murder
happens in the theatre so anyone could have killed him and washed the stains
off. What’s more, all the suspects are actors, and therefore, capable of
playing roles, and lying artfully.
While the story
starts with the couple wanting to adopt Catherine, we don’t see much of the
child. The plot revolves totally around the murder.
Because the state
of forensic medicine and investigative methods are far less developed, Frank
and his team have no option but to question the suspects in an attempt to get
at the truth.
Even so, it is
annoying when they keep asking repetitive questions, hoping to catch suspects
lying or hoping to encounter inconsistencies in the stories.
Each time they
think of something new, they return to the same suspects with a
few more questions. I’m surprised the suspects allow them to hang around for
so long.
Also, the part
where Frank, Sarah, Gino and Maeve sit down and chat with each other,
exchanging findings and trading suspicions was tedious.
The senior Mrs
Molloy was another irritant. Apparently, her role was to innocuously suggest
some breakthrough, on account of the fact that she devours film magazines. She was a very tepid character, despite the author's attempt to pass her off as someone formidable.
Another thing that
rankled was that when most characters expressed unwillingness to speak with
Frank because he was the prime accused, he defended himself saying, if I had
killed him, would I be so eager to find out the truth? Pretty lame defence.
What’s more, even
after they figure out an important clue, they don’t solve the mystery, but keep
going around and around in circles.
The pace does not
ever speed up and there is no sense of a deadline menacing over them. As a
reader, I didn’t feel compelled to guess the identity of the killer. On the
contrary, I felt a huge sense of boredom, hoping they’d come up with something
quickly.
(I received an ARC from First to Read).
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