Review: Murder on Pleasant Avenue

Murder on Pleasant Avenue by Victoria Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Victoria Thompson brings turn of the century NYC to life. This installment takes the reader to Italian Harlem-- how I wish my Mom were still here to fill me in on this neighborhood. I only knew of Black Harlem and Little Italy as locations but never of a large Italian presence in the Harlem area. As to the prejudice against Italians--oh, yes, I knew of that for even in my family there was displeasure when one of my aunts married an Italian fella. But, as can be seen in this story the bias moved in both directions--Gino's family is not thrilled that his " possible" love interest is neither Italian nor Catholic--a double whammy against our Maeve.

This over-riding bias and lack of trust among the Italian community for any outside it play a major role in the search for the murderer of the leader of the Black Hands and the subsequent murder of his wife. It would appear that the Black Hand group has been making money by kidnapping women and children of wealthy Italians for ransom. When the boss, Nunzio Esposito, is found stabbed to death in a flat he'd rented for his mistress, it is assumed the murderer might have taken revenge for this and/or other unjust demands, such as protection money, from the folks of Italian Harlem. Unfortunately, since Gino Donatelli was found in the flat with the dead body shortly after the murder, the police were happy to arrest him, despite his being a former policeman himself.

Malloy gets Gino out on bail and hidden away from the Black Hand. They might want to kill him out of revenge--a vendetta--or perhaps kill him so that the police will consider the murder solved and not go looking for any other possible perp--not that the police ever get very active investigating any crime involving the Italians! Stiil, Malloy, Sarah and Maeve all get involved in finding out what exactly is going on and who is truly responsible. With Gino in danger Maeve is forced to look a bit closer at what she wants from her involvement with him. Many plots thicken as always in the gaslights of New York

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