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1842: Evie Barnum works at her brother P. T. Barnum’s
museum in New York. When an old friend from her childhood
appears begging for her help she is not keen, as too much
contact with her former life might unearth a secret. When
the man is found dead, one of the “freaks” on
display at the museum who got into an altercation with the
victim is thought to be responsible, but he disappears. It
is up to Evie to clear his name and find the real culprit,
while also working out what the dead man wanted her to do.
This is hopefully the first in a new series of mysteries about
P. T. Barnum’s (fictitious) crime solving sister. There
is a lot in here to enjoy, from the author’s evocation
of 1840s New York, to the museum with its interesting exhibits
and Evie’s fast-paced adventures. Evie is a modern miss
in many ways, with her direct way of speaking to people of
any class and bold sorties into the city’s less savory
side. She has a mysterious past which is dealt with throughout
the book, and a rocky relationship with her brother’s
unsuitably named wife, Charity. Her dealings with the museum’s
“freaks” are more positive, and before reading
the novel I wondered how this was going to be handled. We
see that Barnum treats them well, whereas other places that
exhibit them usually do not. Apart from the police’s
assumption that “Jeffrey The Lizard Man of Borneo”
is guilty (based mostly on the fact that he had attacked the
dead man earlier in the day), we do not really get to see
how ordinary New Yorkers interact with them. Maybe this will
be dealt with in later books. As this is a mystery most of
the story involves detecting, which is personally how I like
my mysteries (i.e., not too much that detracts from the crime
solving), and Evie gets to chase red herrings and there is
an interesting denouement. I do hope there will be more entries
in this exciting and unusual series.
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