Murder In
Chinatown
by
Victoria Thompson
"From Publishers Weekly
Edgar-finalist Thompson's eye-opening ninth Gaslight mystery (after 2006's Murder in Little Italy) examines the culture clash in early 20th-century New York City between Chinese and Irish immigrants, whose poverty prompted many of them to intermarry. While midwife Sarah Brandt is attending pregnant Cora Lee, a strapping Irish girl whose husband is a successful Chinese merchant, Cora's teenage half-Chinese niece, Angel, bursts into Cora's Chinatown flat and asks Cora to save her from an arranged marriage to Mr. Wong, an elderly Chinese restaurant owner. When Angel later disappears, Sarah investigates and learns the missing girl had a secret lover, a young Irishman. After Angel winds up dead in an alley, Sarah turns to her detective friend, Frank Malloy, for help. The action of this thought-provoking novel with its vivid portrait of the miseries of tenement life builds to an unexpected climax. "
(I just finished listening to this on audio while I walked on the treadmill this evening. It is one of a series that was recommended to me by a contact here on multiply and I really enjoyed it. Only four of the series is on audio but I intend to listen to all four of them eventually. I really enjoyed the way the book brought into focus the way women in NYC lived back in the late 1800s. And the heroine is a nurse who works in the poor neighborhoods which makes it interesting to me. I knew about the Chinese Immigration Act but I did not realize women were not allowed to come over in hopes that would make the men go back and instead they married poor Irish immigrant women. As always click on the name of the book and the author's name to learn more. I am glad to have found this series.)
(I just finished listening to this on audio while I walked on the treadmill this evening. It is one of a series that was recommended to me by a contact here on multiply and I really enjoyed it. Only four of the series is on audio but I intend to listen to all four of them eventually. I really enjoyed the way the book brought into focus the way women in NYC lived back in the late 1800s. And the heroine is a nurse who works in the poor neighborhoods which makes it interesting to me. I knew about the Chinese Immigration Act but I did not realize women were not allowed to come over in hopes that would make the men go back and instead they married poor Irish immigrant women. As always click on the name of the book and the author's name to learn more. I am glad to have found this series.)
great book great series
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for telling me about it Heidi. I really enjoyed the book!
ReplyDeletethat would be very interesting...I can't imagine marriage between Chinese and Irish they are so different.
ReplyDeleteI guess back in the late 1800s many of the poor Irish Immigrant men who could not find regular jobs had alcohol problems while the Chinese worked hard running their own businesses - laundries and restaurants - and so the Irish women preferred regular meals and a nice place to live.
ReplyDeleteLOL I was thinking the other way around,,,,:)
ReplyDeletesome men like a clean house and good dinners...:)
ReplyDeleteMen are from Mars, Women are from Venus...???
ReplyDeleteI think back then the man earned the money so in order to have food to cook and a nice house to clean the women looked for husbands that worked and didn't drink up all they made.
ReplyDeleteyou're probably right...but with such a drastic difference...ya know...what would the dinner conversation be like?...lol
ReplyDeleteI guess they didn't do much talking...:)
ReplyDeleteI think there was a language barrier. Perhaps the companionship came more from the wives chatting together than from their husband. And perhaps the husbands had business interactions for their companionship. The book seemed to think that the mixed children were the biggest issue. They lacked a sense of belonging.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad I didn't live during those times...I remember being in a similar situation while in the military...but thank goodness it was temporary...
ReplyDeleteYes it was not real good times. Teddy Roosevelt was chief of Police in NYC in the book and trying to clean up the police force. It was very corrupt. White slavery was very common as far as kidnapping young girls and selling them to brothels. Women had very limited choices.
ReplyDelete