Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Brooklyn On Fire





Mary Handley has closed her first case with the Brooklyn Police Department, and she is determined to become a detective. She gets a chance to prove herself when Emily Worsham shows up claiming her uncle has been murdered. Mary's assignment is to discover why he was murdered, and who is murderer is. As she investigates, Mary discovers scandal, murders, political corruption, and romance. Will she be able to figure out the case in time?

This is the second book in the Mary Handley Mysteries. It is absolutely necessary to read the first book Second Street Station before reading this book. There are references to what happened in the first book, but the way the story is written, it is assumed you know who everyone is and what is going on. The plots make the books able to stand alone, but I think it would be difficult to really get into the second book with no knowledge of the first. I will also say I found the first book more enjoyable than the second. It flowed better, and as a reader, I was more invested in discovering if Mary would be able to solve her first case.

I thought the overall plot of the story was interesting. There were several elements to the case Mary was trying to solve, so that kept me wanting to know how it would work out. I did find the book to be a little slow going. It was difficult to engage early with the story and it felt very similar to the first book only with a slightly different mystery and new famous characters. I also did not like how often the character viewpoint shifted. It felt disorienting and pulled me from the story.

I was hoping to be pulled more into Mary's world. I like the idea of a strong female detective character who works hard to fulfill her dreams. Perhaps as the series continues a clearer story will emerge with more depth for the main character.

I read this book as an ebook on my Nook and had no issues with it.


**I received a free copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review**

*Receiving a free copy of this book does not change my review. It simply provides me with a book I would not have gotten to as soon, or heard about otherwise.