This is set in 1888 New York, and one thing the author has done well is spend the time to get their period research right. What life this novel possesses arises from Emerson's lively, authentic descriptions of streets, restaurants, the theater industry, the newspaper industry, teletype rooms, train travel, and fashions of the period.

But don't be fooled by the wonderfully pulpy cover art or the attempts to market this as a period mystery, because what little mystery you'll find here is contrived, unimaginative, and unconvincing. The "suspects" are few and not very credible, and there are no clues - lacking any particular wit or critical thinking skills, the heroine of the tale ends up relying on the old "I'll figure out who the bad guy is when they try to kill me!" trope in order to smoke out the villain.

Mostly the "mystery" appears to be a shell in which to embed a yet another worn-out "plucky heroine meets/saves brooding hero" romance story between comely newspaper journalist Diana Spaulding and Damon Bathory, the sinister but sensual author of Poe-esque tales. If you love your prose purple, you'll be in your element here - from "The twisted, tortured soul of Damon Bathory, however, resided in a vital, superbly conditioned body" to "his gaze raked her from top to bottom," to my personal favorite "She'd be a fool to let herself fall under his spell again ... but she could not seem to stop herself." Holy Harlequin!

I get that one problem plaguing writers of historical fiction is how to make female characters that resonate with modern readers. Make them too helpless and they come off as Polyannas; make them too "woke," they come off as Mary Janes. Instead of trying to break new ground, however, Emerson's Diana takes turns wavering between the extremes, thus invoking both comparisons. This is not just aggravating, but also - apparently - avoidable, as at least one of Emerson's other female characters, Ben's mom Maggie, is refreshingly outrageous and original. (Sadly, this may only be because we're supposed to question whether Maggie is crazy, which requires at least some outrageous and original behaviour.)

In summary, I feel like there was potential here, but poor choices by the author made this a much less engaging tale than it might have been. ( )

I had such high hopes for this book since I generally enjoy historical mysteries. However, this one read more like a romance novel with some mystery thrown in. ( )