To Disguise the Truth (The Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency)
1887 New York City. Eunice Holbrooke, owner of the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, is thankful for her heavy widow’s veil when a man she once shot comes to her agency trying to locate her. He uses her birth name, Eugenie Howland. Arthur Livingston promised Eunice’s grandfather he would look out for her, and he doesn’t believe she killed her grandfather and went to Europe. Before Eunice can agree to look for herself, she goes undercover at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, where a good bit of mayhem ensues. Eventually Arthur learns who Eunice is, and the two decide to solve her grandfather’s murder. They travel, along with Eunice’s mother, Arthur’s grandfather, a Pinkerton agent and most of the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency employees, to Montana, Eunice’s birthplace, childhood home, and where her grandfather was murdered.
This is the third in the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency series, and not having read the first two, I had some trouble keeping all the characters straight. The mystery itself is well-disguised and intriguing and, as with all Turano novels, the characters are quirky and the situations ridiculous and fun. In places, the story dragged a bit as (I’m guessing) readers got to find out what was going on with the leads of past stories in the series. In this clean Christian romance, Turano doesn’t overwhelm the reader with religious morality. A crazy and fun romance and mystery.
