If you want a mindless, name-dropping, romp through 1880's New York City, this book is perfect. If you want something to whittle away the hours while watching the snow fall, this book is perfect. Will this book get you through the two days you are stuck indoors with your children while they temperatures drop to a feels like of -65 degree, no. For that you need wine. Lots of wine. And a book with substance.

Fortunately for me, I have dozens and dozens of books to get me through the next two days. My wine supply? Well, I might need some higher being interference.

Anyway, this book wasn't awful but it really wasn't great. The mystery gets lost in all of the names. The author clearly wants to impress the reader with his knowledge of America's new status as an industrial powerhouse. We are quickly introduced to people like J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, and Nicola Tesla. Somewhere in the middle of all the squabblings of the smart and the rich, there's a mystery where Miss Mary Handley has to prove she's just as good as the men. Mary does all of the things you would expect from a heroine trying to break down gender barriers. However, I will admit to be a little surprised by the mystery's outcome

Will I give the next book in the series a try? Probably. Only because it seems I'm going to have time on my hands. I'm also curious to see how many other names the author can drop into 300 pages. 

I'm starting to wonder if this is a novel or just a who's who of 1880's New York City. So far we've met Edison, Tesla, J.P. Morgan, and the Pemberton's. I've heard about electricity, wine with cocaine, and pop (Soda from those of you outside of Minnesota who use the wrong word.) At this point there's more commercials than the Super Bowl. 

Part of me wants to take the time to do the research to figure out if all of these people were actually in New York for the blizzard of '88. The other part of me wants to keep reading and see if Mary actually gets to solve a mystery or not. 

Kate, a still-young, well-to-do war widow has found herself doing amateur detective work here and there. An old VAD friend asks her to do so professionally. Her father has been missing for years, presumed a suicide. Kate has a tight schedule to solve a disappearance before the Braithwaite wedding. 

The first chapter of the novel does not flow and does a great deal of showing-not-telling while I was still reeling from the first person past tense. That alone was worth docking a half-star. Readers, do not let that deter you! The story will pick up pace very quickly, and while it's not on par with the later Kate Shackleton novels, it's entertaining and fun to read.

Oof. Let me tell you, the author has improved by leaps by A Medal for Murder, and bounds by Murder in the Afternoon. (Perhaps tellingly, the latter is dedicated to her assistant, Amy Sophie McNeil.) If I hadn't read those two before starting this, I might never have gone on - which would have been a shame! Here, the characters and the setting are just as well thought out, and I expect the ensuing mystery will be just as cleverly constructed, but the storytelling is amateurish, expository - the worst kind of telling-not-showing. And, were I the author, I would have thought twice about having so many references to manure in the first chapter.

A long-lost relative shows up on Mrs Shackleton's doorstep asking for help: Her husband is missing, perhaps dead. Reluctantly, Kate is drawn into an investigation that reveals the interplay of relationships and secrets in a little country town, as well as putting her face to face with a part of her own past that she'd hoped to forget. 

While I unashamedly enjoyed the previous installment in this series, I can tell that between A Medal for Murder and Murder in the Afternoon there's been a conscious effort to improve. Character introductions and scene settings seemed more tactile. While before I wasn't ever sure a shift between narrators was necessary, here it was instrumental in distributing information. The plot is a slow reveal as secret after secret falls into place, without, once more, giving away the solution until Kate has all the information she needs. These novels are not puzzles to be solved, but stories - and I am fine with that!

Brody is a knack conjuring scenes and characters that seem tangible and memorable. That's something I find essential in a story; too often in detective novels characters fade into faceless game pieces.

I may be too generous. I often end up rating according to how much I enjoyed a story, and I enjoyed this quite a lot. I could also appreciate Kate's hesitation about Marcus. She's much too sharp and decisive to be shuffled into a position she won't enjoy, simply because it's the done thing. I can't explain it, but somehow that makes me trust Brody - to think I will continue to like Kate, and to like reading about her. We'll see.