Evil
of the Age
The
Charles St. Clair Chronicles
Allan
Levine
Heartland
Associates (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-896150-51-9 (1896150519)
ISBN-13: 978-1-896150-51-2 (9781896150512)
Publication Date: May 2008
List Price: C$22.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): In the sizzling summer of 1871, New Yorkers talk about
only two things: a murdered woman cruelly stuffed into a trunk and
Tammany Hall’s insidious corruption.
Journalist Charles St. Clair travels from the mansions of Fifth Avenue
to the brothels of Soho on the trail of both stories. But what he
uncovers proves to be even more shocking than he ever imagined.
Review:
Historian by profession, mystery writer by avocation, Winnipeg author
Allan Levine has shown in his previous novels his masterful marrying of
both followings. Now, in Evil of the
Age,
the first of the chronicles of a mid-1800s investigative journalist,
35-year-old Charles St. Clair of Fox’s Weekly, Levine has
done it again. He has seamlessly crafted an amazing mix of historical
lore, credible views of the seamiest settings of old New York, an
intertwined plot of murderous suspense and political corruption, and
with a population of unique characters, good, bad, ugly and everything
in between. For history/mystery fans it’s a book that leaves
its readers begging for the next of the St. Clair chronicles.
When the mutilated corpse of a young woman is found decomposing in a
trunk at the NYC Hudson Depot railway station, St. Clair and his boss,
55-year-old Tom Fox, the editor/owner of Fox’s Weekly
newsmagazine are incensed. The gruesome crime, a botched abortion, is
for them another example of abortion as “the evil of the
age,” an evil they are dedicated to exposing along with the
increasing graft and corruption of the city’s Tammany Hall
power brokering. For St. Clair the grisly find is a tragic reminder of
his wife, Caroline, and her death from an abortion to which he eagerly
consented because of her increasing dependency on laudanum. Fortunately
for him, however, his brother-in-law, Seth Murray, on the outs with a
corrupt supervisor, is the detective assigned to the current case.
Together they track the clues of a monogrammed handkerchief, a
blood-soaked newspaper advertisement, and two blood-soaked gems found
with the corpse to uncover the identities of the victim, her lover, her
alleged abortionist, and eventually, her killer and the motives for her
murder. Their quest leads them through brothels, bars, and hotels and
into the opium dens of the Cercle Francais de l`Harmonie, the offices
of the Tammany Hall politicians of the day, even into the homes of the
rich and famous where socialites dance “the
German.” While the fictional story moves forward with threats
and physical assaults on St. Clair, Tom Fox and others, and with a red
hot love affair between St. Clair and an undercover agent Fox has hired
for the abortion investigation, references abound to real life people,
places and events of the 1800s. Trysts take place at dives like the
Hole-in-the –Wall pub and Billy McClory’s Armory
Hall. Civil War veterans are beggars on the Five Points’
streets. The Credit Mobilier scandal plays prominently and facts and
figures of the graft and corruption in the building of the Courthouse
are quoted. Procuress Hester Jane Haskins is mentioned in the same
breath as “Red Light” Lizzie, and politicians such
as Oakes Ames, Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, even President Grant are
implicated in the Credit Mobilier ruse. Susan Anthony, "a school
teacher in upstate New York," sends letters and handwritten articles to
Fox for publication in his Weekly. Arguments for and against abortion
rage around Madame Phillipe, alias Anna Jacoby, a refugee from
Frankfurt’s Judengasse
(Jew’s Alley) ghetto, and against a backdrop of the Tombs,
miscarriages of justice for blacks and the NYC Draft Riots of 1863. And
for anyone familiar with the history of Tammany Hall, the model for
Grand Sachem, “Boss” Victor Fowler, the head of the
Ring and the master-mind villain of Levine’s story, will be
readily recognizable.
As a nineteenth century prototype of the hardboiled sleuth, chief
protagonist Charles St. Clair is a warts-and-all hero. He’s
guilt–ridden over the role he played in his wife’s
death, imbibes far too much and more frequently than he should, carries
a pistol for protection, enjoys sexual relations with a woman
he’s barely met, literally and figuratively, gets high on
hashish at Miss Kate’s House of Southern Belles, and has lost
hundreds of dollars at a local gaming house, a debt that almost gets
him killed. But inside the hardboiled exterior there’s
sufficient marshmallow to give him a softer edge when needed. And he's
good, darned good, in his role as an investigative journalist willing
to turn corrupt politicians on their collective ears and to track
villainous vermin down their historical paths. His chronicles are
potentially classic.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Evil of the Age and to for providing of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Evil of the Age? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Evil of the Age
Heartland Associates (Trade Paperback), May 2008
ISBN-10: 1-896150-51-9 (1896150519)
ISBN-13: 978-1-896150-51-2 (9781896150512)
Omnimystery
keywords for Evil of the Age
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Location(s) referenced: New York City.
