Lies that Comfort and Betray
It’s 1888 in New York City, and young working-class girls are being butchered in a hideous manner reminiscent of London’s Jack the Ripper. The city’s Irish cops and detectives are incompetent and worse. The novel features the obligatory feisty “independent woman,” Prudence MacKenzie, as a private detective along with her male sidekick, a former Pinkerton agent. These two circumvent the bumbling police to conduct their own sleuthing. There is a plethora of depravity, torture, sacrilege, abortion and grisly murder throughout. There is also a lengthy and improbably chatty covert mobile surveillance of a suspect by the intrepid Prudence. The wrong men are seized and imprisoned under horrible conditions. Working their way through the city’s underworld and partnering with some unsavory and pathetic allies, the two investigators eventually close in on the real killer.
The book seems longer and more convoluted than is perhaps necessary. The one Italian character is a Mafiosi, the sole black character is saintly, and the numerous Irish are all deranged, corrupt, or plain stupid, their faith a mockery. The two WASP protagonists are, however, wise and virtuous. With “Hail Marys” and “Glory Be’s,” the author has a good grasp of the lingo, but there is nothing uplifting associated with the liturgical rites sprinkled throughout. Quite the contrary. There is perhaps an audience among readers who find dark, graphic crime novels appealing. I just found this one morose and clichéd.
