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. 

Mary is a case when she feels like someone is following her. But she cannot tell who at the moment. Once she sees her friend's husband talking to Colleen. She thinks the worse of her best friend's husband. 

On her way out, she confronts a man see that is following her. When she does, he wants her to look into his brother case that is that Ben Ali is not a killer. 

There seems to be some corruption going on in the NYPD in the year of 1894. Who does all the cover-up? Who the Killer of more than a dozen woman. 

Looks like Mary get pulled into an investigation that has to do with Sage Bombing and as she gets more into the case of Ben Ali she finds more clues and finding the killer. Who is Jack the Ripper, the killer? 

You will be turning the page to find out. Have you read the book you learn about that time period in NY? We even meet Teddy Roosevelt before he becomes President of United States and the reason why or at least partly. 

If you are a historical Fiction fan you will enjoy this book. It a Mystery and part historical so you will get both if you are a fan of both or one or the other.

I won Brooklyn on Fire in a giveaway from The Reading Room site, which is now bookstr. Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy is the second installment of the Mary Handley Mysteries. Lawrence has a wonderful way of fusing historical events and people with imagination. This is a superbly written mystery that kept me intrigued.

I ended up dnf'ing the first book in this series because it was incredibly boring but I won this second book, Brooklyn on Fire, before I started the first so I was hoping it would be better since Second Street Station was Levy's debut. Well unfortunately I didn't care for this one anymore then I did the first. It again was boring and the writing and story just didn't flow well to me in either book. I also felt absolutely nothing for any of the characters so I'm calling it a wrap and moving on to something else. It may be that this series just isn't for me so if you read it, I hope you enjoy it more then I did.

*I received this ARC from Goodreads FirstReads in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!