Review by Booklist Review
Harriet Morrow has taken a job with the Prescott Detective Agency in Chicago in 1898. It pays better than her former bookkeeping job, and the money is sorely needed so she can support herself and her younger brother. On her first day, the owner, Theodore Prescott, assigns her the first case and expects results in just one week. His eccentric neighbor, Pearl Bartlett, who, in the past, has asked for help in finding items that ended up being in her Prairie Avenue mansion all along, is missing her maid, Agnes. Pearl takes to Harriet, or "Harry," as she calls her, but the female office staff do not. Nor do men in the office, and they throw up road blocks at every turn. The case seems simple, but following the slim leads takes Harriet into Agnes' Polish neighborhood with unsavory betting parlors and packing houses, into the underworld of gay nightclubs, and along many streets thanks to her trusty bicycle. Osler has researched late-nineteenth century Chicago carefully for this delightful series starter and addresses Harriet's sexuality in a sensitive manner.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The first woman hired by a Chicago detective agency faces one daunting challenge after another in this excellent historical series launch from Osler (Cirque du Slay). When Harriet Morrow reports for her first day at the Prescott Detective Agency in 1898, she's determined to make a success of it and leave her dull bookkeeping career behind. Yet from the minute Harriet walks through the door, she's met with skepticism from her male colleagues. Only the boss, Theodore Prescott, believes in her, but even he gives her an apparently toothless assignment: report to the home of Pearl Bartlett, an elderly and often confused widow, to follow up on her complaint that her maid, Agnes Wozniak, has disappeared. While Pearl has a reputation for crying wolf, Harriet believes her this time and suspects that Agnes has been abducted. As Harriet digs deeper into the case, she also grapples with escalating hostility at the detective agency, wariness among Agnes's peers in Chicago's Polish community, and fears that her secret life as a lesbian might be exposed and used against her. As the intrepid, bike-riding lady detective plunges into Chicago's seedy gay clubs and criminal hangouts, Osler doles out well-placed clues that set the table for a knockout conclusion. With lush historical detail, optimistic but plausible gender politics, and an unforgettable heroine, this series is primed for success. Agent: Stephany Evans, Ayesha Pande Literary. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The first in a new historical mystery series by Osler ("Hayden and Friends" novels), who is an Edgar, Anthony, Left Coast Crime, Macavity, and Agatha Award finalist and an MWA Robert L. Fish Award winner. In 1898, women have few rights and are expected to be married and caring for home and family. At 21, Harriet Morrow wants to break the mold. Raised by free-thinking parents, she was encouraged to be herself. She is owner of a Chicago apartment, caring for her younger brother and working as a bookkeeper. Seeking a different path, she applies for a position as a private investigator. To her surprise, she is hired on a trial basis at the Prescott Agency and tasked with finding a missing maid in one week. With little guidance, she begins her investigation, stumbling her way through the search, which takes her into Chicago's Polish community, the organized crime underworld, and a grand Prairie Avenue estate, not to mention the underground gay and lesbian community of 1898. VERDICT Osler has created a likable heroine, a good mystery, and a solid LGBTQIA+ fiction entry.--Sandy Knowles
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In 1898, a female detective proves she's no lady while investigating a case that takes her from wealthy to seedy areas of Chicago. Bold and ambitious, Miss Harriet Morrow has wrangled herself a position as the first female field operative for the Prescott Detective Agency, quite an experiment for agency principal Theodore Prescott. Maybe it's her ankles, which Prescott deemed "thick and sturdy" in her interview, but Harriet just isn't built like other women in the late 1890s, starting but not ending with her interest in a nontraditional role. She's determined to make good by finding Agnes Wozniak, the live-in maid to idiosyncratic widow Pearl Bartlett. On her initial visit to Agnes' quarters in Pearl's stately Italianate home, Harriet sees that the room has been tossed and a window left open, turning the disappearance into a likely kidnapping. The only agency colleague who helps Harriet track down any leads is Matthew McCabe, whose friendliness extends to acquainting Harriet with the right end of the gun--the one where she's doing the shooting, at least during practice. Learning marksmanship doesn't make Harriet feel any safer, for her investigation brings her to unfriendly neighborhoods whose unsavory denizens she's certain would have made off with the pretty young maid if given the chance. She does find an ally in Agnes' older sister, Barbara, who seems almost as eager to impress as Harriet is. As she feels herself making headway, a saboteur starts working against her. Her time to find Agnes is limited not only by safety concerns but by her need to prove herself as a woman detective in her first case. Osler puts a queer 19th-century spin on a familiar tough-gal type. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
