As much as I liked Kate Belli’s debut Gilded Gotham mystery, Deception by Gaslight, I did say she was caught up a little too much in details in that first book. I can’t say that about Betrayal on the Bowery. The historical details are still there, but Belli plunges readers into an action-packed historical mystery. This one is even better than the first one, with one of my favorite tropes that doesn’t appear often. The heroine saves herself and the hero.
Genevieve Stewart is part of society during New York’s Gilded Age, but she’s a journalist, writing as Polly Palmer for the society column of the New York City Globe. It’s as a friend, though, that she’s at the harbor to see Esmie Bradley, the Montana copper heiress, and her new husband, Rupert Milton, sixth Earl of Umberland, off on their honeymoon. That’s where she meets up with millionaire Daniel McCaffrey. She and Daniel haven’t been close since their adventures a year ago when they investigated a political land and money grab. But, they’re both in a hurry to board the ship when they hear Esmie scream and Rupert beckons them on board the ship.
Genevieve and Esmie recognize the dead man in the newlyweds’ stateroom. Marcus Dalrymple was a childhood friend and Esmie’s former suitor. The couple found him there, yelling something about a demon. He vomited all over, and died. Before the police arrive, Daniel swiftly sorts through the man’s pockets. If Detective Aloysius Longstreet hadn’t been the investigating officer, Daniel might have told him about the medallion he found. It came from Boyle’s Suicide Tavern on the Bowery, a sign that the bearer had spent the night there, and lived to tell about it.
That doesn’t mean Daniel is happy when Genevieve insists on going to the Bowery with him. She says she has a gun, and she can go anyplace he does. If he doesn’t accompany her, she’ll just follow him. Daniel and Genevieve have to look into the shipboard death because Longstreet seems determined to arrest Rupert for Marcus’ murder. Before they can go anyplace, though, they have morning appointments.
Daniel and Genevieve still are a little leery of each other, so she’s not happy when they both show up at Frank Wentworth’s mansion the next day. They have invitations from the man who wants them to look into the disappearance of his wild daughter, Nora. She’s been gone for three days, but he doesn’t want to involve the police. Instead, he trusts their discretion. Now, the two are once again working together.
The couple are dragged deeper into the case when they’re at a rooftop restaurant, and another young man rushes in, yelling about a demon and that it’s coming. As the restaurant crowd scatters, Daniel tries to stop him, but he hurls himself off the twelfth story building.
I love characters that are not stereotypes, and neither Genevieve nor Daniel are what you would expect. Her family is part of Mrs. Astor’s 400, but she’s a working reporter who can handle a gun, swim half a mile, and save a man if she has to. He’s a kid from Five Points who lost his family, ran with a gang, became a lawyer, and inherited a mansion and the fortune to go with it. He still keeps his street contacts, and does what he can to defend the innocent in court.
In the last book, the couple took on the wealthy and powerful. As before, I can’t say too much about Belli’s latest historical mystery without spoiling the story, but they tangle with an old enemy. From taverns to bordellos to old mansions, danger is always close in this terrific Gilded Gotham mystery. There’s so much tension, of various kinds, in Betrayal on the Bowery.
Kate Belli’s website is http://katebelli.com/
Betrayal on the Bowery by Kate Belli. Crooked Lane Books, 2021. ISBN 9781643857589 (hardcover), 336p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.
