Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson

Title: Murder in Chinatown
Author: Victoria Thompson
Series: #9 in the Gasllight Mystery series
Genre: Historical Mystery (cozy mystery)
Publisher: Berkley(June 5, 2007 )
Source: Gift
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2

Synopsis: Sarah Brandt has made her uneasy way to Chinatown to deliver a baby. There she meets a group of Irish women who, completely alone at Ellis Island, married Chinese men in the same predicament. But even as a new century dawns, New Yorkers still cling to their own kind, scorning children of mixed races.

When the new mother's half-Chinese, half-Irish niece goes missing, Sarah knows that alerting the police will accomplish nothing, and seeks the one person she can turn to-Detective Sergeant Malloy.

And when the missing girl is found dead in a Chinatown alley, Sarah and Malloy have ample suspects in her murder-from both sides of Canal Street.

My Thoughts: I typically love this series but this wasn't one of my favorite books in the series. It took me forever to read which is also an indication that I didn't enjoy it as much.

The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle:  In this book, similar to Murder in Little Italy, the topic of racial prejudice was a major topic. As these are set in the late 1800's it wasn't a surprise but for me it was tiresome. People hated the Irish. People hated the Italians. And in this one, people hated the Chinese. Considering every single person in New York in this book is either a foreigner or can easily trace their family tree to show their roots are also foreign....the hatred was almost too much for me. Thankfully Sarah does not fall into this way of thinking so her attitude was one of the only aspects that prevented me from chucking this book. When Thompson went out of her way to mention the Chinese way of talking was different and their "L's" came out as "R's" with an example....well folks...that was almost the chucking point. I couldn't help but start to mentally read the dialogue that way. Up until that point I was happily reading everything in my own voice.

The mystery felt like it took too long to resolve (of course that was probably due to me taking forever to read this book) and Sarah and Frank's relationship did not progress even a little bit. This made me sad as I view the budding relationship between the two important in my enjoyment of the series. The solving of Sarah's husband's murder moved barely half an inch but now has a timeline where Frank only has a few weeks to find his killer. So the next few books might have closure on that underlying link.

What did I like about this book? Agnes/Catherine and Maeve. I love those girls and they are just blooming under Sarah's guidance. I love the family unit she has created and the addition of the nosy but lovable elderly woman next door is even more of a plus.

In a Nutshell: I'm hoping this was just a one off and the next book will be better for me because I am not ready to give it up.