Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad RiccaMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The title of the book calls to mind the famous and popular fictional Victorian-era detective, but the book is about actual real-life events which don't always wrap themselves up as neatly and satisfyingly as Conan-Doyle's stories. So in that sense, as engaging as it often is, the book promises something it can't quite deliver.
It's really two different stories. There is the story of Ruth Cruger, a young woman who disappears mysteriously in turn-of-the-century New York, where the police are unable (or unwilling) to get to the bottom of things; and there is the story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer-detective who solves the case. The two stories intersect briefly but for the most part stay separate and unrelated.
Ms. Humiston begins the story under the unfortunate name of Quackenbos before discarding both the name and the husband who gave it to her. She studies law, becomes a lawyer, and champions the causes of the poor and underprivileged -- primarily immigrants and women.
Set about a hundred years in the past, the issues dealt with here are remarkably current. In particular, Grace Humiston crusades against a male-dominated culture that exploits and generally has its way with young women. Almost a decade before women could vote, she was fighting the victim-blaming mentality that still today plagues our discussions of sexual crimes.
There is a lot to like about this book, unfortunately there is also a lack of focus. I enjoyed it a great deal, but ultimately it fell short of what it could have been.
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