Review of Brooklyn on Fire a Mary Handley Mystery

"Brooklyn on Fire a Mary Handley Mystery" by Lawrence H. Levy. Back cover synopsis: "Brooklyn's most witty and daring detective risks everything to solve a dangerous triple-murder case. After closing a case with the Brooklyn Police Department, Mary Handley is determined to become an official detective in her own right. And when Emily Worsham shows up at Mary's new office convinced that her uncle was murdered, Mary's second assignment begins. As she investigates, Mary soon finds herself entangled Ina high-stakes family scandal, political corruption, untrustworthy sources, and an unexpected romance with a central member of New York's elite- offering a life of luxury Mary fears she could get used to. Featuring historic figures like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Vanderbilt family, Brooklyn on Fire takes Mary on a wild journey from New York to North Carolina not only to uncover the truth of one man's death but also to unravel the mystery of three murders in a case that threatens those Mary loves most. "
                     

This is the front cover.

The book sounded interesting and pretty clean so I began reading with high hopes. However after a somewhat promising beginning the book became very slow and hard to get through. I had trouble connecting with the main character and found her unrealistic. Her attitude much more coincides with that of a feminist of today's time than one of the time period of the book, I had trouble getting past that fact and the way she treated her mother. Altogether the story was much more modern than the time period indicated. It also seemed to move slow at times and seemed somewhat disjointed overall. Far from being the page turner I had hoped, I had to force myself to finish the book. I am an avid reader and and very rarely have that issue. I also found that it was not as clean as I had hoped. One character cursed incessantly every time he was mentioned in the book so I skipped over a lot of his dialogue. The plot was decent but I figured out "who dun it" long before the heroine did. All in all I was very disappointed in this book and would not recommend it to anyone. I hate to give a negative review to start off with but I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion as part of the blogging for books program. 

             You can find out more about this book here and it's author here.