Bibliofreakblog

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

I really enjoyed Ellen Horan’s debut novel, 31 Bond Street.  Centering on a murder in 1850’s New York City, it is more about a lawyer, dedicated to defending the accused, than the who dunnit you might expect.

Henry Clinton first reads about the murder that took place at 31 Bond Street in the paper.  But soon after, he is sent a note from Emma Cunningham, the housekeeper and boarder of 31 Bond Street.  Her employer, Dr. Harvey Burdell, whom she claims she has secretly married recently, has been brutally killed, and she and her teenaged daughters are being held there, separately, while the investigation proceeds.

Clinton is on the case!  He sneaks into the house–not hard with the investigation going on–and up to Mrs. Cunningham’s room.  I had no idea that witnesses could be held this way–up to weeks at a time!–back in the day.  I found some of the legal proceedings quite fascinating.  While they fit the law of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they seemed downright criminal in my mind.

The narration goes back and forth between the present case, and Emma’s meeting and developing relationship with Burdell.  As it progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that Burdell was a real sleaze bag.

Did Emma do it?  I went back and forth on this one throughout the book.  To me, that’s what makes for a great mystery.

But as I said, it’s more about Henry Clinton than anything else.  He takes an enormous risk by representing Emma.  While his wife, Elizabeth, in the beginning, would rather he didn’t, she stands by him.  There’s this great little part where Clinton is thinking about his wife and how very smart she is.  He thinks that if there were such a thing as female lawyers, she would make a good one.  He bounces ideas  off of her, and she plays devil’s advocate with him.  In this way, I felt that Clinton was very progressive for his time while still being ostensibly of his time.  That’s a fine line for an author to walk with her characters, and I think that Horan pulled it off neatly.

I wasn’t super keen on the ending.  Some of the bits of what happened after the trial.  I can’t give away more than that without letting on how the trial goes.  Suffice it to say, I was a bit annoyed and disappointed by the ending.

Yo FTC! I received a copy of this book from the publisher as part of a TLC blog tour.  For more information, please visit TLC’s 31 Bond Street Page.
Buy 31 Bond Street on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
Agelica by Arthur Phillips
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff
The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
Drood by Dan Simmons
The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone
Murder on Gramercy Park by Victoria Thompsom

Other works by Ellen Horan:

none.