Murder in Little Italy

Gaslight Mystery Series # 8

By: Victoria Thompson

Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu

When midwife Sarah Brandt visits Little Italy to check up on a new mother who delivered her baby just the day before, she finds the young woman dead. The family insists that the death was from complications of childbirth. Sarah disagrees. So does the woman's own mother, an Irishwoman who spreads the story that the girl was murdered by her Italian in-laws, the Ruoccos - an accusation that inflames tensions between the two immigrant groups. The situation escalates when a second death in the tenements nearly leads to riots in the streets as political factions and organized crime take sides and square off over wild rumors and newspaper accusations. Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy realizes that he will need Sarah's help to unravel the secrets of these troubled families, bring a killer to justice, and restore order to the volatile community.

©2006 Victoria Thompson (P)2016 Tantor

Italian murder and sins

It was a really unusual story, full of clues and inference. Sarah’s story is getting strong and more of her feelings for Malloy. I have enjoyed her growth and her enjoyment of the two children she has at home. Even though one of the girls is older and was a grifter, but it was to eat and have a place of shelter at night. She loves them both dearly.

surprise surprise

great story. I never saw the end coming the way it did! must read for sure.

One More Great Story from Victoria Thompson

Another great book in this series.

I love this series and everything that I learn about this time in the not to distant past. Frank is becoming more involved with Sarah and the upper crust of the time. Teddy Roosevelt calls Frank to help prevent a major incident between the Irish and Italian residents of the city.

It is fun working through the clues with Frank and Sarah using the old gumshoe methods before DNA or even fingerprints. I enjoy reading about an event or custom that sends me on my own research to learn more about the era.

The ancillary characters are an essential part of the series. Mrs. Ellsworth, Catherine, Maeve, the Deckers, and the recurring policemen. They all add to the enjoyment of the story. I hope we are seeing a new recurring character in Officer Donatelli. His crush on Sarah is cute and a little irritating for Frank. He is a wonderful addition to the series. Now back for more.

A tiny bit disappointing

I have believed that this series was getting progressively better with each new book. While this one was still good, I just could not get as enthusiastic about it as some past ones. In this story, Sarah Brandt is called to the Little Italy neighborhood in NYC to deliver a baby. However, the child's birth quickly opens up a family crisis and murder, and Sarah is drawn in, along with her friend Frank Malloy of the police department, in having to try to sort out what has happened.

I will say that this narrator has greatly improved, so that helped the book move along at a good pace. But even that did not make up for what was missing. This book had a lot of good focus on the characters involved in the crime, but there was little--almost no-- interaction with the characters I have come to enjoy in the other books. I especially missed the interactions with Frank's son and mother. The story if a good one--if you have never listened to a book in this series you would not miss much by starting here, at the 8th one. But I guess I'll just say that it was not my favorite in the series. I hope future ones will return to the more usual mix of Sarah and Frank's personal lives mixing in more with the rest of the story.

I’m on a roll!

Book 8 delivered as consistently as all the others, I’m on such a roll why stop now? On to Book 9!

Great

Another exciting adventure with Sarah and her detective. This time in Little Italy. Love the historical knowledge and characters.

Now in to the next!

MURDER IN LITTLE ITALY

This is another adventure in the Sarah Brandt series. All of her books that I've listened to has been good. This one was real good. I highly recommend trying this series. Callie Beaulieu does a great job narrating this book

ok

ok but not as good as previous ones. To easy to figure out plot .

Love this series, but least favorite installment

This is a very good series. The mysteries are so interesting and handled well. This installment is the first one, out of the eight I’ve listened to so far, that I couldn’t get into as quickly. It took almost three chapters for the investigation to begin. I found the initial two-hour scenes at the Rocco's tedious, so I put the speed up to 1.7. Then there was sooooo much time about the baby. So much time. I’ve loved the sub stories around Sarah and Molly, but I wasn’t that interested in that much time spent on the baby and the Rocco family. They were irritating, uninteresting people, and time on them meant no time spent on the investigation. Plus, I’m weary of the antagonistic relationship between Sarah and Malloy. I hope that improves in future.

Not bad, but I wish that someone could tell the narrator that it is pronounced black “mah-r-eye-ah” (long i), and not mar-ee-ah”

Not a bad experience, but also not a lot of surprises, other than the occasional mispronunciation of words. Also, it feels almost like a drinking game that this author seems to work the word “miasma” into every book, and food is regularly turning to ash in someone’s mouth. The historic aspect is interesting.