Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson

Sarah Brandt is a midwife who was once a chid of priviledge. But when she fell in love with a young doctor, and he with her, she defied her parents and married him. They responded by kicking her out of their lives, but when her doctor husband died, they would have accepted her back- except that Sarah had grown used to and to like living on her own.

Instead of returning to her father's house, she trained as a midwife and continued to live on her own. But in her family's past lies a dreadful secret- Sarah had an older sister who also ran away from the family to be married. But in her case, when she got pregnant and tried to give birth, she died, and the baby with her. Two weeks later, her husband hung himself out of grief. Even though the family never speaks of her, no one has forgotten her, especially not Sarah's mother.

So when her mother asks her to go to a seánce and help her ask the forgiveness of Maggie. Sarah's dead older sister, Sarah is shocked. She knows that spiritualists and mediums are more likely to be false than anything, and she can't believe her mother would stoop to consulting a fraud. After all, Maggie is dead, and nothing she or her mother can do or say will ever bring her back. Her mother says she knows that, she just wants Maggie's forgiveness.

Realizing that her mother's emotional need is greater than her ability to be rational on this point, Sarah goes with her mother to an address on Waverly place, in the fashionable part of New York. There, she and her mother meet with the medium, Madam Serafina, a young Italian girl. Around her are her usual coterie of seekers: Mrs. Gittings: a woman who always dresses in black, Mrs. Burke: a friend to Sarah's mother, who recruited her for the seánce, John Sharpe: a widower, and Mr. Cunningham: a young man whose father recently died, leaving him with the business, for which he seeks advice from his father.

The seánce is much like any other, with Serafina using spirit guide named Yellow Feather, an American Indian, to channel the spirits and their wishes. But when Serafina speaks of a baby, her mother calls out for Maggie, and everyone hears the sound of a baby crying. Her mother begs for Maggie's forgiveness, but Serafina faints and the session is over. Afterwards, the others blame Sarah's presence and unbelief for the ending of the seánce, but Sarah wants her mother to stop doing this, and her mother agrees.

However, a few months later, when Mrs. Gittings is stabbed at one of the seánces and dies, Sarah's mother is there, and she summons Frank Molloy, Sarah's cop friend, to the scene, using Sarah's name. When he arrives, he's surprised to find not Sarah Brandt, but her mother, Mrs. Decker, who is using Sarah's name to protect her own, and that of her husband. A search of the house turns up two other people, Professor Rogers, who ran the house for the owner, who was- surprise! Mrs. Gittings, and a nearly adult boy named Nicola, who claims to be a servant in the house.

It soon comes out that everyone at the house was paying to come to the sittings, and as Mrs. Burke had run out of money, she'd been selling her jewelry to pay for the cost. Each of the sitters has money and a high level of class, and none of them appreciate being questioned by Frank Molloy. But when Sarah arrives, summoned by a messenger from her mother, it's up to her and Frank to find the real murderer and also to find the money that Mrs. Gittings was promising Serafina and Nicola, who are in love and who look after each other.

This is another wonderful historical mystery, but this one is set in turn-of-the-century New York City, from the deepest slums to the most rarefied heights. Sarah is a child of priviledge and Frank Molloy a child of the slums, and between them, they can tackle both sides of any crime. And since Sarah is a woman and also a midwife, she also has quite different lines of investigation than Frank. She can take Serafina into her home and question her there, while Frank can't obviously.

I also like seeing the great divide that exists between rich and poor at the time, and the cultural tensions between the many nationalities in the city. Frank Molloy is a Cop, caught between the Irish, who have normally held the positions of Cops, and the increasing number of Italians who want in on the job. Not to mention the politics of Tammany Hall and the power of Theodore Roosevelt who was Comissioner and is now going to be leaving for Washington to serve under the new President McKinley.

Reading these books is like travelling back in time without having to undergo the smells, rampant crime or corruption of that era. If you enjoy good mysteries, you'll want to read this one. And if you like historical eras explored in fiction, you'll also want to read this one. I could go on, but there are many reasons to pick up this book amd you'll find it completely wonderful. Highly Recommended.