Murder in Chinatown (Gaslight Mystery, #9) in 2-3-4 Challenge

Sep 15, 2018 Jonetta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nc-br-digital-library, 5000-books, 12800-in-2018, group-read, historical-mystery

Midwife Sarah Brandt goes to Chinatown for a delivery and eventually gets caught up in some family drama regarding a missing teen, Angel Lee. Determined to not get involved in another potentially dangerous situation, she seeks advice from Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy who does provide some useful information. However, when the girl is later found murdered, Sarah asks Frank for help in finding her killer.

The story centered around the Lee family, two Irish women married to Chinese men and their ...more

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Sep 29, 2018 Lauren rated it liked it

Shelves: gilded-age, historical-mystery, cop-hero

Murder in Chinatown
3 Stars

Midwife Sarah Brandt finds herself embroiled in another murder when the young niece of her latest client goes missing and is later found dead. The case is made all the more difficult by the fact that the victim is of mixed Chinese-Irish parentage and the suspects from both ethnic groups abound.

A good mystery with interesting historical background on the interracial marriages between the Chinese men and Irish women. The information on the restrictions places on Chinese ...more

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Apr 21, 2020 Christina T rated it liked it

Shelves: cozy-mysteries, historical-mystery, 3-5-stars, new-york, 2020-book-challenge, 9-in-the-series, 2020-challenge-challenge

I typically love this series but this wasn't one of my favorite books in the series. It took me forever to read which is also an indication that I didn't enjoy it as much.

The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle: In this book, similar to Murder in Little Italy, the topic of racial prejudice was a major topic. As these are set in the late 1800's it wasn't a surprise but for me it was tiresome. People hated the Irish. People hated the Italians. And in this one, people hated the Chinese. Con I typically love this series but this wasn't one of my favorite books in the series. It took me forever to read which is also an indication that I didn't enjoy it as much.

The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle: In this book, similar to Murder in Little Italy, the topic of racial prejudice was a major topic. As these are set in the late 1800's it wasn't a surprise but for me it was tiresome. People hated the Irish. People hated the Italians. And in this one, people hated the Chinese. Considering every single person in New York in this book is either a foreigner or can easily trace their family tree to show their roots are also foreign....the hatred was almost too much for me. Thankfully Sarah does not fall into this way of thinking so her attitude was one of the only aspects that prevented me from chucking this book. When Thompson went out of her way to mention the Chinese way of talking was different and their "L's" came out as "R's" with an example....well folks...that was almost the chucking point. I couldn't help but start to mentally read the dialogue that way. Up until that point I was happily reading everything in my own voice.

The mystery felt like it took too long to resolve (of course that was probably due to me taking forever to read this book) and Sarah and Frank's relationship did not progress even a little bit. This made me sad as I view the budding relationship between the two important in my enjoyment of the series. The solving of Sarah's husband's murder moved barely half an inch but now has a timeline where Frank only has a few weeks to find his killer. So the next few books might have closure on that underlying link.

What did I like about this book? Agnes/Catherine and Maeve. I love those girls and they are just blooming under Sarah's guidance. I love the family unit she has created and the addition of the nosy but lovable elderly woman next door is even more of a plus.

In a Nutshell: I'm hoping this was just a one off and the next book will be better for me because I am not ready to give it up.
...more

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Sep 06, 2018 Robin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, 2018

When Midwife Sarah Brandt delivered a baby in Chinatown, she encounters Irish women who have married Chinese men. This is during a time when Chinese women were not allowed to immigrate to the United States. Several of the men married Irish women who were also alone in the city. Sarah meets 15-year-old Angel Lee, a biracial teenager who doesn't want to marry the older Chinese man her father has chosen for her. The next day, Sarah learns that Angel has disappeared. She decides to ask Detective Ser ...more

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May 02, 2018 Meera rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-mystery

This one was slow to get my interest but half way through it started getting better. And I actually hadn’t figured out who did it before it was revealed and that was nice.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2020 Sharon Kallenberger Marzola rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, mystery, police-procedural, series, favorites, romantic-suspense, series-in-progress

Once again, we travel down a murderous path with Frank Malloy and Sarah Brandt in Murder in Chinatown, book nine in Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight Mystery series. Like the previous book, Murder in Little Italy, we hear about more injustices of the times.

Sarah is called to deliver a baby in Chinatown. When she gets there, she finds that some Irish women marry Chinese men for, what they perceive is a better life. Chinese men treat their women with respect and offer them a good home and freedom that ...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Connie rated it it was amazing

This was about a murder in Chinatown and how Mallloy and Sarah figured out who the kiler was. Catherine started to talk in this book too. It had been a while, so really liked this book.

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