Table of Contents
Praise for national bestselling author VICTORIA THOMPSON
and her Edgar Award-nominated
Gaslight Mystery series...
Fascinating... Sarah and Frank are appealing characters... Thompson vividly recreates the gas-lit world of old New York.Publishers Weekly
A series which will appeal to Anne Perry fans.
Mystery Scene
MURDER ON ASTOR PLACE
Nominated for the Best First Mystery Award
by Romantic Times magazine
Victoria Thompson is off to a blazing start with Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy in Murder on Astor Place. I do hope shes starting at the beginning of the alphabet. Dont miss her first tantalizing mystery.
Catherine Coulter, New York Times bestselling author
A marvelous debut mystery with compelling characters, a fascinating setting, and a stunning resolution. Its the best mystery Ive read in ages.
Jill Churchill, author of The Merchant of Menace
Spellbinding. A bravura performance that will leave you impatient for the next installment.Romantic Times
continued on the next page...
MURDER ON ST. MARKS PLACE
Nominated for the EdgarAward
Lovers of history, mystery and romance wont be disappointed. Exciting... will hold the reader in thrall.
Romantic Times
As Victoria Thompson colorfully demonstrates in her latest Gaslight Mystery, New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century is a dangerous place for its melting pot immigrants...[She] weaves a fine mystery for readers who enjoy solving a difficult puzzler.Harriet Klausner
MURDER ON GRAMERCY PARK
The inclusions of genuine facts make this novel much more superior to most of those found in the subgenre... The lead protagonists are a winning combination.
Harriet Klausner
Grippingsatisfying in its twists and turns under the gaslight KLIATT
Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson
MURDER ON ASTOR PLACE
MURDER ON ST. MARKS PLACE
MURDER ON GRAMERCY PARK
MURDER ON WASHINGTON SQUARE
MURDER ON MULBERRY BEND
MURDER ON MARBLE ROW
MURDER ON LENOX HILL
MURDER IN LITTLE ITALY
MURDER IN CHINATOWN
To my beautiful daughter Ellen and her new husband Dave.
May all your dreams come true.
SARAH OPENED THE DOOR TO FIND A RAGGED LITTLE BOY on her front stoop. He was fidgeting from one grubby bare foot to the other, either impatient or nervous. He clutched a folded piece of paper to his sunken chest and glared up at her suspiciously.
You Mrs. Brandt? he demanded.
Yes, I am, she replied, eyeing him cautiously. He might be young in years, but she knew he was as dangerous as a serpent. Obviously, he was a street Arab, one of the hundreds of homeless children who lived on the streets, doing whatever was necessary to stay alive. What on earth did he want and how did he know her name?
Here, he said, thrusting the paper at her.
She took it gingerly, still watching him with one eye while she unfolded it. Someone needing her services as a midwife must have hired the boy to fetch her. Usually a family member or a neighbor came to tell her a womans time had come, but perhaps theyd had no one to send.
Dear Mrs. Brandt, the note read in a careful, masculine hand. I find myself in need of some professional advice from you on behalf of a lady of my acquaintance. However, this is a matter of some delicacy, and I would prefer that my mother not be made aware of it. Would you be so kind as to meet me this evening at five oclock in Washington Square near the hanging tree? The note was signed, Your obedient servant, Nelson Ellsworth.
Nelson lived next door to her with his elderly mother. Mrs. Ellsworth had become one of Sarahs dearest friends, in spite of the difference in their ages. She hardly knew Nelson, however, since he was so seldom at home. According to Mrs. Ellsworth, he spent long hours working at the bank. He hoped to become a vice president soon.
You gotta answer, the boy informed her, still dancing from one dirty foot to the other. His clothes were filthy, too, and his body was skeletally thin. Every instinct demanded that she take him inside and give him a hot meal and clean clothes and a warm bed. Shed be a fool to do so, though. Once in her house, hed probably steal everything of value and vanish.
Please tell the gentleman that I said yes, she told the boy.
No, you gotta write it! He wont pay if you dont write it, and he promised me a nickel! he cried, his small body fairly quivering with urgency.
She should have known Nelson would be careful. He wasnt one to take chances, even with five cents. The boy could simply throw the paper away and return whatever message he wanted to if Nelson hadnt required a written reply.
Just a moment. Sarah carefully closed the door, resisting the urge to lock it. She couldnt bring herself to insult the boy that much, no matter how little she trusted him.
Her front room had been converted into a medical office when her physician husband had conducted his practice there. Since his death, Sarah used it to see the patients who were able to come to her. She went to her desk and found a pencil.
I would be happy to meet with you, unless I am on a call, she wrote and signed her name. Babies arrived when they wished, and Sarah could never make a firm appointment with anyone.
She folded the paper again as she made her way back to the front door. This whole thing was very puzzling. There was only one reason someone would require her professional opinion, and Nelson Ellsworth was not only a male but a bachelor, too. In fact, according to his mother, he did not even have any lady friends. Which meant that his mother probably didnt know him nearly as well as she thought!
The boy still stood on the porch, looking even more unhappy than he had before. She held out the paper, and he snatched it from her fingers. In that instant, their eyes met, and Sarah saw him for the child that he was. He couldnt have been more than seven or eight, and she wondered what evil things he had been forced to do to stay alive this long. Her heart ached with a longing she refused to identify.
If you ever need help... she began, ignoring all common sense. But her effort was wasted. The boy was gone, running down the street as fast as his skinny legs could carry him, off to find Nelson Ellsworth and earn his nickel.
Sarah sighed. It was just as well. What had she been thinking to invite a child like that to visit her? She smiled at the thought of what her friend Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy would have to say about her sentimental feelings for a street urchin. He would be horrified and wouldnt hesitate to let her know it. When she might have an opportunity to share those feelings, however, she couldnt imagine. She hadnt seen Malloy for several weeks, not since hed taken his son Brian home from the hospital.
Brian had been born with a club foot, but a surgeon Sarah knew had operated on him to correct it. The cast might even be off by now. Sarah decided she might actually be brazen enough to pay the child a visit, just to see how he was doing. Shed have to be careful not to go when Malloy might be home, of course. She wouldnt want him or Malloys mother to think she was using his child as an excuse to see him. Especially Malloys mother, who hated the sight of her. Besides, she knew if she visited Brian, Malloy would feel obligated to come by and thank her later.
