Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy

I read Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy for the Amazon Vine Program that I am part of. It is the second book in the Mary Handley series, the first being Second Street Station. If you have a chance I would read the first book in this series first as the second book builds a bit on the first book. However, Brooklyn on Fire is fine as a stand alone book. I liked the book and gave it 5 stars while I noticed others were not so thrilled with it. Is this book going to go down in history as a pivotal piece of literature? Hardly. Undoubtedly within 10-15 years people may no longer even care to read the book which happens with a majority of cozy mystery books. I do think that at times you might enjoy a book more than if you had set down to read it on a different day and time. I needed a book to relax with and get absorbed in so that I would forget some of the pain I was in. I did find it interesting to read all the historical portions and how life was lived in the 1890's. I hope you enjoy the book as well.

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I’ve read many books, but it is rare to find one that jars my way of thinking in the very first paragraph. This book began with an old woman talking to her friends Vicky and Albert while thinking on her life. As she reminisces she realizes that she is in her 7^th decade at the age of 64. That might not mean much to some of you younger readers, but nearly a month ago I turned 60 and I never thought about the fact that I was in my 7^th decade. In my mind that means you are in your 70’s and that does sound old.

Age aside, this was a rather interesting cozy mystery novel. The author took a chance that most authors don’t and that is including many historical figures in the story. And I’m not talking about someone obscure in history, but the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and the Vanderbilts including Geoge Vanderbilt that built the Biltmore mansion in North Carolina. Even the main character in the book, Mary Handley, was a real person and worked at one time under the Chief of Police and helped bring a murderer to justice for which she earned a $1000 reward.

Needless to say this book this book was a bit different with a very different heroine for the era that she lived in. Women detectives have come a long way since the first one appeared on the scene and it is interesting to seeing authors lately that instead of having the sleuth working during the current era, they have gone back into history such as several WWII female sleuth novels and now this book goes even further back to 1890 where ‘Ladies’ apparently had weaker constitutions than they have now and all news and crime stories were kept from them as much as possible. So it is very interesting to see a book where they have no telephones or fancy cars to get around in. No internet to research from. Families that are embarrassed and shocked that their daughter would want to do so masculine a job and how would she ever get married if the eligible men found out what she was doing. But Mary Handley didn’t care about that. She was thrilled with her office that was located in a used book store and her 20 business cards that a friend had had made for her. Once the call came for her to help, she didn’t waste time and took no thought for herself physically to the point that in one scene she needed a blood transfusion. At that point only 50% of those getting them survived the process (no blood typing at the time). She also donated blood and when she later passed out for lack of fluids and food a doctor was about to do a ‘bloodletting’ procedure to help her when someone remembered she had donated some blood that day. Interesting thought, you pass out due to low fluid balance only to have a doctor try to fix the problem by cutting you and letting more blood out.

These item mentioned, not to spoil the book for you, but to let you know some of the interesting things about life over 100 years ago in the life of a young woman that was not following the normally mores of the time. And interesting book that is also a fairly quick read.