Nineteen year old house maid Rose Gallagher works for Thomas Wiltshire, businessman in 1886 New York. When he disappears she decides to investigate.
I didn't really take to the characters and when it turned into more of a paranormal story than a straightforward murder mystery I did lose interest. It just is not my sort of story though I suspect other readers will enjoy the book.
A NetGalley Book ( )

Rose Gallagher is an Irish American girl who has come from Five Points to work as a housemaid in a posh Fifth Avenue Brownstone whose life changes when her boss, Mr Thomas Wiltshire disappears. She is certain that he is in trouble but convincing the police is a differernt ballgame. She investigates and discovers a world of ghosts and other occult wonders where she suddenly is able to be valuable and finds an interest, even if it is dangerous.
I really enjoyed this, though I found the romance a little lacking, the elements of occult was quite a good twist to this mystery. ( )

What do you get when you mix a historical mystery with paranormal fantasy and a whiff of potential romance? You get this first in a new series, Murder on Millionaire's Row by Erin Lindsey.

Set in 1886, in Gilded Age Manhattan, the novel tells the story of Rose Gallagher, an Irish girl from Five Points who works as a housemaid in the Fifth Avenue home of the wealthy, single, British Thomas Wiltshire. Rose wants more from her life but is happy enough, a conscientious hard worker who has a fierce crush on her handsome, somewhat mysterious employer. When he goes missing and the police seems unlikely to take his disappearance seriously, Rose decides to search for him herself, inadvertently getting herself mixed up in something far bigger than she could ever have imagined.

There is murder, kidnapping, theft, Irish gangs, Pinkerton agents, Freemasons, magic, ghosts, witches and more here. The novel is told in the first person from Rose's perspective so the reader gets to know her very well indeed. She is smart, perceptive, intuitive, and observant. She is also delightfully spunky and stubborn, determined to find Mr. Wiltshire and to solve the larger case he's wrapped up in too. Her sheer joy and excitement at investigating is charming although there has to be more to her wanting to find her employer than simply her longstanding crush. The interactions between upper and servant class are perhaps too modern for the time the novel is set in and the interactions between different races also reads a bit unbelievably. Lindsey has drawn a wonderful, atmospheric, historic New York though, capturing the grimy underbelly of places like Five Points and an abandoned gas works. The characters were appealing to spend time with and although this is not a mystery the reader could solve, it did feel as if we were learning information right along with Rose so were close to the action in an interesting way. This novel does stand alone fine but it also makes for an intriguing introduction to a new series too. A good read for historical mystery fans who want a pretty big dollop of paranormal in their mysteries. ( )

It took me awhile to get into this one, but I managed to get it done. What kept me at it (besides just being stubborn?): I like Rose, our heroine. An Irish Catholic maid, she has pluck, courage, and smarts. What surrounded her, took me some time to adjust to. I did not at all expect the supernatural elements that were such a part of the story. The second half, though, picked up the action. I can see the start of something. Will give book two a try and see what developed ( )

3.6 ( )