Murder on Sisters’ Row [by] Victoria Thompson
978-0-425-24115-8 ; $24.95
Returning from shopping with her adopted daughter and her nursemaid, midwife Sarah Brandt finds herself waited for outside her home by a young man she does not care for, with a carriage. He is to take her immediately to attend at a birthing where he works, a location he refuses to disclose.
She finds herself deposited behind an elegant house, where everyone seems to be asleep, except the cook, who takes her in the back door and up the stairs to a nicely-appointed room where an attractive young woman in a silk nightdress moans from a big bed elaborately decorated with curtains and draperies. Her name is Amy. The woman who waits with her is Mrs. Walker, who is obviously in charge, although she is strangely separated from the doings in the room.
Sarah has been trying to figure out what this great house is, with so many people asleep during the day, but with the sound of a piano and men’s and women’s voices at night. Amy’s begging her to help her get away gives her a clue – the place is a brothel, Mrs. Walker the madam, who is angry that Amy has misled her by being pregnant. Amy doesn’t want to lose her baby, and wants Sarah to contact Mrs. Van Orner, who helps rescue prostitutes from their depraved lives in brothels.
Sarah promises Amy to see what she can do. She also lets Mrs. Walker have a piece of her mind – she didn’t like being taken to a brothel unaware. She tells her friend Det. Sgt. Frank Malloy of the N.Y.P.D. about her encounter, and that she is planning to help Amy. He is appalled and chastises her about her going to the brothel. Her mind, however, is made up.
She visits the charity Mrs. Van Orner runs, Rahab’s Daughters, and meets a rather unattractive and unassuming woman, Miss Yingling, who is Mrs. Van Orner’s secretary. She tells Amy’s tale, and is asked back, so that she may meet Mrs. Van Orner and her helpers. They tell Sarah what to do – take the baby, which Mrs. Walker has allowed her to do, and take the young man away, so he will not be an impediment to their rescue, which she does, asking him to drive her and the baby away.
After Sarah gets the baby away, Mrs. Van Orner, her friend Mrs. Spratt-Williams, and the two gentlemen, Mr. Quimby and Mr. Porter, come in and bodily remove Amy from the house and take her to the home where the rescued women can recover and live while they find jobs and learn to take care of themselves.
Mrs. Walker goes to the police, accusing Mrs. Brandt of kidnapping both the baby and Amy, wanting the police to get her property back, because, or course, she pays them money to do such things. But our Mrs. Brandt is the daughter of a powerful and wealthy man in New York , and his power trumps Mrs. Walker’s in the New York
Amy is unimpressed with the place they’ve taken her to, and complains about her room, which is small and not as nicely appointed as the one in the brothel, and she is upset she couldn’t bring her clothes. When Sarah asks if she has decided what to name her little boy, she says that she will name him after his father – Gregory. Mrs. Van Orner runs from the room. Others tell Sarah that Gregory is Mr. Van Orner’s name. Sarah hopes they are not one-and-the-same, but she has heard a rumor that Mrs. Van Orner had started her charity because Mr. Van Orner liked prostitutes so much.
The next thing Sarah knows, Mrs. Van Orner has gone home by herself in her carriage, and is discovered dead by her coachman. A greatly transformed Miss Yingling – so gorgeously decked out that Malloy, who had been greeted by her, didn’t recognize her when he saw her again the same evening, has influenced her employer, Mr. Van Orner, to commission Malloy to find his wife’s killer.
Sarah and her mother make a condolence visit to Mr. Orner, who is an acquaintance of the mother’s. Sarah gets to see the change in Tamar Yingling, and she also finds Amy, who bursts into the room, expecting a tête-à-tête between her and Mr. Orner, when, in reality, they are entertaining their guests. Sarah can’t wait to tell Mrs. Orner’s colleagues where Amy has gone.
When Amy and Miss Yingling go out to shop for some clothes at Macy’s, Amy is kidnapped by Mrs. Walker, acting supposedly on a letter from Van Orner, who swears he didn’t write it. When they get her back to the brothel, she collapses and dies, and Malloy is called upon to investigate. Sarah and Amy go into high gear, interviewing everyone they know who is connected with the case, but it isn’t until Sarah is almost killed that the culprit is finally captured.
These are great mysteries, with fine characters, and historic notes showing the author has done her homework. A great slice-of-Victorian life in New York City
Library book.
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