a fair first novel. I liked the setting and the idea. The author was so fair in giving clues that there was no mystery.The main detective seemed a bit "whiny" to me , but maybe I was just in an unsympathetic mood ( )

Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend. I felt as if there was no depth of character and a rather lack-luster story line. It is rather easy for the reader to figure out the mystery, and the one surprise twist in the story....really isn't that surprising. I feel as if this author has potential, but I will not go out of my way to pick up one of her books. It wasn't the gripping tale of a historical murder mystery I was hoping it would be. Rated: a light easy read, but ultimately disappointing. ( )

I enjoyed this historical mystery, just not as much as I wanted to. The mystery,, itself, was fine. The narrator, a NYC police detective now working with a police force just north of the big city, catches a case involving a brutal murder of a young woman that brings him back to his old haunting grounds, as well as having him cross paths with a criminologist, Alastair Sinclair, who wants to assist in the investigation.

Det. Simon Ziele lost his fiancee in the 1904 General Slocum ferry disaster and is still dealing with his grief a year later. Sinclair believes the criminal he's been studying with his research staff at Columbia University is the killer Ziele is hunting. Of course, nothing is ever that easy, and this book didn't win its author an Edgar Award for nothing. With Ziele revealing as much of the story as the reader needs to know at any point, the likely culprit seems to change whenever new info is uncovered. I wasn't correct in all my suppositions -- I entertained far more possible resolutions to the killing than the author did -- but the solution to the case wasn't much of a surprise. I also liked the characters. But Pintoff's prose is matter-of-fact simple and doesn't evoke the time and place as well as other historical mystery writers have done. It is a fast read, however, and I have the next two on their way to me. ( )

Bad, just plain bad mystery ( )

Surprisingly good for a first crime novel. The setting of New York after the turn of the last century satisfied my love for historical fiction. Reading about the places I knew while they were in their heyday, ChinaTown, and the Bowery was so much better than the remains of these areas that I knew from my youth. While I could predict who the killer was easily, it was a good way to spend a day off. ( )