Murder On Washington Square by Victoria Thompson

"Washington Square was quiet that evening as Sarah made her way through the Greenwich Village streets toward it. The nurses with their baby buggies were gone, the old men playing chess and checkers and the respectable ladies taking the air had all retired to their homes for supper. Soon night would fall, and the Square would fill again, but with an entirely different class of people. In the darkness, prostitutes would ply their trade, and pickpockets and other thieves would gather to prey on the customers the women would attract. This time was the twilight of the Square, between the respectable and the dissolute, when a gentleman and a lady could meet without attracting too much attention".- Victoria Thompson, Murder On Washington Square

Murder On Washinton Square (2002) is the fourth book in Victoria Thompson's gaslight series of mystery novels.  and thank you Lark for introducing me to this series.  I have read the first three novels and now the fourth and I haven't lost interest yet.   

These books are set in 1890's NYC and we learn a good deal about what it was like to live back then and the class divisions between high society and the poor.  It's fascinating.  But the reason I keep returning is the detective duo, Sarah Brandt, the nurse midwife and Frank Molloy, the NYC detective.  

When the series begins Sarah and Frank dislike each other and Frank is particularly upset that Sarah keeps interfering with his murder cases.  But Sarah and Frank have great chemistry and by book four they are grudging friends and maybe something more?

And so when Murder On Washington Square begins Nelson Elsworth is in a heap of trouble.  Nelson is a kindhearted young man.  He works in a bank and he is the son of  Mrs Ellsworth, Sarah's next door neighbor and friend.  Nelson has been accused of murdering Anna Blake a young woman who came to his bank looking for a loan so that her mother could have life saving surgery. 

Nelson can't give a loan from the bank but he is touched by Anna's story and gives her $100 out of his own pocket for her mother's surgery.  Weeks later Anna is back.  She tells Nelson she is being evicted from her boarding house and before you know it Nelson is loaning her money to pay her rent.

Nelson visits Anna at her boarding house, one thing leads to another, and a few weeks later Anna tells Nelson she is pregnant.  Nelson proposes marriage but Anna says no. She will go away and raise the baby herself but she would appreciate it if Nelson can give her $1,000 so she can get settled.  

And then Anna is found stabbed to death in Washington Square Park.  The police zero in on Nelson Ellsworth.  The tabloids label him a monster and a scoundrel who murdered his pregnant girlfriend.  Nelson and his mother are terrified and Sarah who knows Nelson could never have done such a thing offers to help and convinces Frank to assist with the investigation.

But who killed Anna Blake? Was she even pregnant?.  Frank and Sarah discover that Anna is not the sweet young thing she pretended to be and the list of suspects is long.  I figured out who the killer was but the ending was still a surprise that I did not see coming.

There are 27 novels in Thompson's gaslight series and in a few months I will be on to book five.  I would suggest people begin with the first novel Murder On Astor Place but Murder On Washington Squaare isn't a bad place to begin either. It can be read as a stand-alone.