Murder on Bedford Street by Victoria Thompson

Murder on Bedford Street
by Victoria Thompson

ISBN-13: 9780593337103
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: April 25, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Hugh Breedlove is far from the most agreeable client private investigator Frank Malloy has ever had, but his case is impossible to refuse: his young niece, Julia, has been wrongfully committed to an insane asylum by her cruel and unfaithful husband, Chet Longly. Though Breedlove and his wife seem more interested in protecting the family reputation than their niece’s safety, Frank and Sarah agree to help for the sake of Julia and the young son she left behind.

Frank and Sarah’s investigation reveals a secret—a nanny at the Longly home died suspiciously under Chet’s watch, and maid was shoved down the staircase and promptly dismissed. The Malloys fear they are dealing with a man more dangerous than they had anticipated, one who will do anything to defame his wife. But all is not as it seems in the Longly family, and perhaps another monster is hiding in plain sight....


My Review:
Murder on Bedford Street is a historical mystery set in New York City in 1900. But it's a "mystery" only because it's in a mystery series. It wasn't until a third of the way into the book that a murder was even uncovered, and even then it was pretty obvious whodunit. As Frank, Sarah, Gino, and Maeve investigated, people strongly hinted at and later outright accused whodunit of the murder. Near the end, there was another murder. By then, they knew whodunit but spent about one page trying to find any proof before giving up. So not much mystery.

At best, you could call this a suspense. The investigators stubbornly refused to change their initial assumptions in the face of ever-increasing clues, and you just knew whodunit was going to kill again. Only Maeve seemed open to the actual evidence, logic finally won Gino and Frank over, but Sarah didn't show well at all. I found the story frustrating. It could have been an interesting mystery as they worked the difficult task of actually proving whodunit (as knowing and proving are two different things). Instead, most of the book was watching supposedly smart characters be about the only ones who didn't understand whodunit.

This is the 26th book in the series. You don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, and this one didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous mysteries. There was no sex or bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.