MURDER IN CHINATOWN

Suzanne Toren deserves a better vehicle for her talents than this predictable historical mystery set in early-twentieth-century New York City. Author Victoria Thompson has been praised for her Gaslight mysteries, which explore themes related to poverty and race relations. This installment focuses on the Irish and Chinese cultures of the period, whose members tended to intermarry because of their shared poverty. When a missing Irish-Chinese girl turns up murdered in an alley, midwife Sarah Brandt asks her detective friend, Frank Malloy, for help. While the story's Irish and Chinese characters, suspects all, are made fully believable through Toren's vocal skills, the development of the plot is hackneyed. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2008]