March 12, 2018
At the start of Edgar-finalist Thompson’s solid 21st mystery set in gaslight-era New York City (after 2017’s Murder in the Bowery), Sarah Brandt and her PI husband, Frank Malloy, are finalizing the adoption of Catherine, a child Sarah rescued and has been raising as her own. All the couple have to do is get Catherine’s legal guardian—actor Parnell Vaughn, who doesn’t want anything to do with the girl—to relinquish his parental rights. When Vaughn’s fiancée insists on a financial settlement, Sarah and Frank agree. But when Frank brings the money to Vaughn, Frank finds him beaten to death and becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Sarah and Frank must go behind the scenes of the cutthroat theater district to uncover the real killer. Meanwhile, Sarah is busy with the opening of a maternity clinic on the Lower East Side that will provide free services for women in need. Thompson’s command of period detail and her insight into such issues as the era’s blatant sexism put her in the forefront of historical mystery writers. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.