Murder on Washington Square

Yesterday I had the neatest thing happen. Just as I was getting ready to go to Mom's, the UPS guy brought a small package to the door. I'm expecting a couple of books in the mail, so I assumed it was one of those. But inside I found Karen Kingsbury's new book Like Dandelion Dust. There's no note inside, so I'm not exactly sure how it made its way to me, but I'm guessing I'm supposed to review it, which will be a delight. It was pretty exciting (yes, I'm easily pleased) to get an unsolicited book in the mail to read and review. Maybe this could be the start of something more.

Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson is the 4th book in the Gaslight series featuring Victorian era midwife Sarah Brandt and New York Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy. This was absolutely the best book so far in the series. When Sarah's neighbor, Mrs. Ellison's son is charged with the murder of his mistress, Sarah jumps to help prove his innocence, much to Malloy's frustration. Thompson does a terrific job of creating mood and dropping hints about the real murderer's identity without giving the game away. The chemistry between Malloy and Sarah is top-notch. I just love how Thompson has been inching their relationship along. The climax is edge-of-your-seat gripping and what happens afterwards will thrill fans of the series. She even throws in a twist at the very end to make the reader long for the next book. Murder mysteries don't get much better than this.

Keep Jess in your prayers. He's feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of homework, plus camping this weekend, responsibilities at church and his job right now. I was hoping that this weekend would be a break for him, but instead he's going to have to spend it writing a 1000 word essay about Judaism. I'm going back to reading Like Dandelion Dust so I can review it tomorrow.