An Orphan of Hell's Kitchen

January 13, 2020
Set in 1914, Freeland’s impressive third Louise Faulk mystery (after 2019’s Murder in Midtown) finds Faulk, one of New York City’s first policewomen, at Manhattan’s 30th Precinct when a building custodian reports that a tenant of his, Ruthie Jones, who’s the mother of twin baby boys, has not responded to knocks on her door. When Faulk and a colleague break down the locked door, they discover Jones in a bloody bathtub, having apparently slit her own wrists—and one of her infants dead in the water next to her. Faulk finds Jones’s second son alive and delivers him to the foundlings hospital. Not buying the official verdict of suicide, Faulk launches her own unofficial investigation. She begins by trying to trace the owners of the multiple passports that Jones, who supported herself by prostitution, possessed for some unknown reason. Freeland makes her lead’s successes and missteps plausible, and captures the feel of a city skittish about the war in Europe. Maisie Dobbs fans will be pleased. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.