City of Dreams
A Peter Fallon Mystery
William Martin
Review: Peter Fallon leaves his beloved Boston to search for early American financial instruments with his fiancé Evangeline Carrington in her beloved New York City in City of Dreams, the fourth historical adventure in this series by William Martin.
Evangeline is in a Manhattan bookstore buying a gift for Peter when she overhears a bag lady trying to convince the store's owner, an expert in old money, to team up with her because she knows where a lot of it is. The owner, Delancey, isn't interested, but Evangeline thinks this might make a great wedding present, so she talks him into meeting the bag lady as requested. Delancey bails, but Evangeline meets her, where she's given a brass crown finial that is just a "preview". When two men accost her, she runs but drops her cell phone ... which sets into motion a sequence of events that involve a secret cache of American Revolutionary War Bonds and include a Wall Street financier known as Avid Austin Arsenault, who casually asks Peter and Evangeline, via a text message (of course), "Can I interest you in saving America?"
As is typical of this series, City of Dreams is written with chapters alternating between the present and the past, the latter providing a historical backdrop to the plot in the former. There is plenty of action and intrigue then and now, but what is possibly the most interesting aspect of the book is, as Arsenault puts it, "... a new way of seeing American history: not as a string of events or inventions or political decisions, but as a series of financial investments in the future." This is definitely a unique twist on the "search for buried treasure"-style adventure, handled well and made more thrilling by the rapid pace of the plot (in both eras).
Peter and Evangeline make for an entertaining couple, and the city itself is represented as something larger than life. Despite Peter's assertion that "I am not moving to New York City,", he seems to be enjoying himself. Readers of City of Dreams will as well.
Acknowledgment: Forge Books provided a copy of City of Dreams for this review.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in City of Dreams: New York City
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City of Dreams by William Martin
Publisher: Forge
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-765-32197-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-765-32197-8
Publication Date: May 2010
List Price: $25.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): “Can I interest you in saving America?”
That’s the text message Peter Fallon receives from a Wall Street bigwig. It’s not a challenge he can turn down, especially since the country is in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Hidden somewhere in New York City is a box of 1780 bonds with a face value of ten thousand dollars. The Supreme Court is about to decide if these bonds still have value. If the decision is yes, those ten thousand dollars, at five percent interest, will be worth a very pretty penny ...
Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington, must find the box—and fast. Suddenly, their race against time becomes a race through time as Peter and Evangeline track the stories of New Yorkers whose lives have been changed by the bonds … and all the while they’ll unravel the thrilling and inspiring origins of the City of Dreams.
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