Murder in Chinatown

April 30, 2007
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.

June 1, 2007
Midwife Sarah Brandts patient, Cora Lee, is an Irish woman with a Chinese husband. In New York at the beginning of the twentieth century, impoverished immigrants often married one another, but cultural differences led to conflict. As Sarah attends the birth of Coras son, Coras young, half-Chinese niece, Angel, runs into the room to ask for help. Her father has arranged her marriage to an elderly Chinese man. Angel later disappears, and Sarah helps the family investigate. When Angel turns up dead in an alley, Sarah asks her friend, Frank Malloy, a New York City police detective, for help. It seems that Angel had a secret lover, a young Irish boy. As the plot unfolds, readers will learn about the miseries of tenement life, the discrimination against Chinese and Irish immigrants, and the hardships and dangers facing young women. They will also be drawn to Sarah, a strong, caring female protagonist who is not afraid to help those in need. The unexpected climax adds to the impact of this first-class historical mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)