Murder on Mulberry Bend

Sarah Brandt's mother has been trying her hand at matchmaking for her widowed daughter but Sarah and her date, Richard Dennis agree that they are just friends. Richard has asked Sarah to accompany him to the Prodigal Son Mission where his late wife volunteered so that he can better understand why she went to this area of town. When Richard and Sarah are in the mission, Sarah thinks that she is not doing enough to help the poor and decides to make various donations. Along with her own time that she will use to educate the women on hygiene, she later brings some older clothes that she no longer wears.

Several days later Det. Frank Malloy recognizes the clothes and hat on a dead body as belonging to Sarah Brandt. He is devastated until the show more body is turned over and he sees that it is not Sarah. But how did this person get Sarah's clothes and was Sarah the target?

This mystery was very engaging because of the underlying emotions that were continually shifting between Sarah, Malloy and Dennison. Very well-written. show less

Murder on Mulberry Bend is the fifth book in Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mystery series. Two regular members of the supporting cast will be introduced in this one: Maeve and Catherine (here called 'Agatha,' 'Aggie' for short.
The Prodigal Son Mission that heroine Sarah Brandt first heard about in book four, Murder on Washington Square, will be visited for the first time -- but hardly the last for this series -- in this book.

Sarah Brandt, widow, midwife, and nurse, has just been to the theater with Richard Dennis, whom she met in the last book because he's the boss of her next-door neighbor, Nelson Ellsworth. Sarah's rich Knickerbocker parents, Felix and Elizabeth Decker, consider Mr. Dennis a very suitable second husband prospect for show more their surviving daughter. Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy gets to fight feelings of jealousy. So, is Ms. Thompson planning to let Sarah be torn between two good men for books to come? Will Richard turn out to be a fiend in gentleman's clothing? Will a new lady need to be introduced to fall for Richard and vice-versa?

Rich Mr. Dennis has led a sheltered life, so Sarah Brandt is his guide when he wants to see the mission where Hazel volunteered. She deliberately introduces him (and the reader) to the realities of life among New York City's poor. Richard can hardly believe that there are people who would willingly sacrifice privacy for the lower rent they pay for an apartment so close to the Elevated Railway that passengers can look through their windows. It's October, but poor children are still barefoot. Richard declares that the slum known as Little Italy is nothing like Italy.

The Prodigal Son Mission that Richard's late wife Hazel volunteered at is located on Mulberry Bend, one of the worst places in one of the worst neighborhoods in New York City. It's run by the Mrs. Wells. Her late preacher husband and she founded the place. At least it offers a safe home and classes for girls who no longer have homes and would prefer not to be prostitutes to survive. (More than one of these books mention how older children of poor families are sometimes forced to move out and live on their own because their parents can't afford to feed them anymore.) Girls who want to abandon prostitution for an honest living are also accepted.

Mrs. Wells has very high standards for the girls' behavior. She's also prejudiced against Catholics. One of her rescued young women, Emilia, has been converted to Protestantism. Mrs. Wells wants to save her charges' souls. They're taught to read so they can read the Bible. They're also taught homemaking skills. We learn that besides losing her husband, Mrs. Wells lost her daughter when she was only three years old. The widow has an opinion about why she lost her family. The clothes Sarah donates for the girls to wear are accepted. (Mrs. Decker insisted her daughter take some of her clothes now that she's seeing Mr. Dennis socially.)

Mrs. Wells allows the neighborhood children to play in the mission's yard on an hourly rotation so the yard isn't too crowded to be enjoyed. Sarah is impressed with this and other things. She volunteers to teach at the mission.

Meanwhile, lapsed Catholic Frank Malloy is following up on the tip he got from a prisoner in the last book. There was a witness to Sarah's husband's murder and Frank is determined to find him. Solving Dr. Brandt's murder is his way of trying to pay Sarah back for all she's done for Frank's deaf son, Brian.

Sarah is there when Brian finally gets the cast off his formerly club foot. Her surgeon friend, Dr. David Newton, has done an excellent job. It's a happy scene. (I started listening to later books in the series, so when I read the earliest books that my library didn't have in audio editions, I was surprised that Brian was crippled. Here is where the three-year-old's new life of mobility begins. By the way, Brian's eyes are described as blue again.) Sarah has known Frank for six months, but that doesn't help her understand why he's angry with her. Then Frank says something quite hurtful.

One of the mission girls is found murdered in another part of the city. She was wearing some of Sarah's donated clothing, including a hat Frank knows well. At first he thinks it's Sarah. No, it's Emilia, who had been seduced and abandoned before she went to the mission. Did her former lover kill her?
Coroner Doc Haynes hasn't done his autopsy yet when Frank takes Sarah to identify her. Sarah spots the lethal wound.

NOTES:

Chapter 2: Reporter Webster Prescott was introduced in Murder on Washington Square. Here we learn it's been only a few days since that case was solved.

Chapter 3: Yes, 'interfered with' is an old euphemism for rape.

Chapter 4: Frank answers Sarah's questions about Mrs. Wells and her husband. Mrs. Wells won't help Catholics who don't convert.

Chapter 5: Maeve is introduced as an Irish girl with 'gangly limbs, frizzy red hair, and enormous eyes'. In chapter 9 we learn those eyes are honey brown.

Chapter 6:

a. We learn more about the late Emilia, but we don't get her surname until the next chapter.

b. Sarah's mother is a blonde, as Sarah is. Her father, Felix Decker, has brown hair.

Chapter 7:

a. We find out why Emilia Donato's mother didn't love her.

b. Ms. Thompson explains what a dive is. (I thought it was just a regular bar, if sleazy.)

Chapter 8 has Mrs. Ellsworth's superstitions about umbrellas. (Never heard of the second one.) Edna also has a curious belief about Italians and babies in the womb. She reads the tea leaves for Sarah. (I enjoyed Sarah's reaction.)

Chapter 9:

a. We're introduced to Catherine, the mute little brown-eyed girl whose real name won't be known until the end of book seven, Murder on Lenox Hill. Mrs. Wells calls her 'Aggie,' short for 'Agnes', which was Mrs. Well's mother's name. We're told that Aggie was painfully thin, filthy, and dressed in rags. I find that odd, given what we learn about why the little girl was left at the mission in book fifteen, Murder in Chelsea.

b. We're told how Frank dealt with a robbery by the Short Tail Gang

Chapter 11: The Italians have to hold their Masses in the cellar of St. John's Catholic church. The Masses were in Latin back then, so what difference did it make that the Italians didn't speak English??? The homily should have been the only part they wouldn't have understood.

Chapter 12

a. Mrs. Ellsworth repeating a superstition about dropping a knife.

b. The story Danny tells here doesn't quite match the prologue in book ten, Murder on Bank Street. Here he heard 'Hello, Tom'. There it was 'Hello, Brandt'.

Chapter 13: Sarah dresses as a famous queen for a Halloween party. Mrs. Ellsworth, helping her, explains why women brush, not comb, their hair at night. A few other costumes are mentioned as well.

This is a good mystery. The murder weapon wasn't a surprise because of other books I've read, but the climax with the killer was quite chilling. Once I realized that Murder on Mulberry Bend was likely to be the book that introduced Maeve and Catherine, I could hardly wait to read it. I'm glad it didn't disappoint. show less

This is the fifth book of Victoria Thompson's Gaslight series. Once again, it features the two main characters in the series, midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy. Sarah is the daughter of one of the prominent Knickerbocker families of New York City, now a widowed midwife, and Frank is a member of the New York City Police Department.

Widower Richard Dennis, a family friend, asks Sarah's help in understanding the last days of his wife, Hazel. It seems she found comfort volunteering at a mission house, The Prodigal Son Mission, right before she died. Richard feels immense guilt in not knowing what Hazel was so passionate about those last months. Sarah immediately finds herself drawn to the young, unfortunate women that show more the mission tends to. After visiting it with Richard and bringing a donation of her old clothes, she decides that she could teach a hygiene class to these women and perhaps keep them from a life of ruin. When Frank Malloy finds a young woman's body wearing Sarah's hat, he panics. Realizing that the dead woman isn't Sarah, he asks for her help in identifying the body.

Set in turn of the century New York, the book is filled with period details and the actions of the characters are governed by the social formalities and politics of the times. This series seems very well researched even though it's often not that difficult to figure out who the killer is. I'm also enjoying the progress made on the personal relationships of the characters. There are new developments for young Brian Malloy and entertaining internal battles for Frank as he copes with Sarah's continuing relationship with Richard Dennis.

I continue to read this series as my “go to” books for fun and leisure. They are charming and I'm picking up the sixth book, Murder on Marble Row, soon. show less

No one cares for the poor when they're alive, and they certainly don't care when one of them turns up dead unexpectedly. However, an emotional jolt catches the attention of Malloy, and an unexpected link to Sarah Brandt sends Malloy to her door, seeking reassurance. Of course, Thompson's protagonist can't help but work for an underdog, and soon Brandt is on the case, wading through Italian slums and finding herself running between high society and fanatically religious institutions. Murder on Mulberry Bend is consistent for the series, which is just what I'm looking for.

Sarah Brandt becomes a supporter and volunteer at Prodigal Son Mission which helps girls who have been abandoned or walked the streets to learn skills and live a “good” life.

Frank has been called to City Park to investigate the body of a woman found by a park bench. The victim is face down. Yet he believes the body to be Sarah Brandt as he recognizes her clothes, hat and hair. But when body is turned over it is a young woman he has never seen before.

With these two separate events in Frank Malloy’s and Sarah Brandt’s lives they are once again pulled together to investigate murder …

The historical Gaslight Mystery series continues drawing Frank and Sara closer together. Each attracted to the other but their backgrounds are very show more different. The murder is well constructed and the ending is a surprising turn. Recommended show less

I read the Library of Congress Talking Books audio version, narrated by Suzanne Duvall. The narrative is fair at best, and I found myself wishing that Ms Thompson had continued with the narrator she used in the first three books of the series. Duvall's Italian immigrants might just as well have been Chinese....that's how convincing she was. Also, the elderly next-door neighbor has the voice of a 20 year old college coed. That's shoddy narrating. If you're looking for dramatic, interesting twists, this is not the series for you. This series is cozy and leisurely. The settings of 19th century NYC are well described and the main characters are thoroughly enjoyable. That is what drew me in and leaves me wanting more.

I really enjoy this Gaslight Series set in New York in the 1890's. In this caper, a young girl is murdered. Richard Dennis, an old friend of Sarah's, begins courting Sarah, much to the disdain of Frank Mallory. Victoria Thompson exposes the horrors of life for the poor, and the corruption of the police department. She also shows the vast distance between the rich and the poor, and the prejudices of the different nationalities. I thought that most Catholics were cordial to one another, but the Irish Catholics were biased against the Italian Catholics. Another interesting aspect of the story rests in the use of a lady's hatpin. I look forward to the next book in the series.