From Booklist
John Le Brun, a southern gentleman who cannot quite retire, finds himself in New York City in 1906, once again brought in to investigate a murder. At the Metropolitan Club, an unloved member has been found, killed within its walls, and shortly thereafter, his equally unlovable twin brother is also murdered. John finds himself drawn not only to these men's complicated family history--and deeply attracted to Lordis Goode, a distant relation who kept their house for them--but also to the world of New York men's clubs, both the Metropolitan and the Players. A lively Irish detective named Kevin O'Leary and the historical personages of J. P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and Stanford White play key roles in the action, which culminates in a theatrical switcheroo that stretches credibility but delivers a satisfying, melodramatic crescendo. Far stronger on period atmosphere than plot, this will appeal to readers who crave Gilded Age minutiae.
GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
In the summer of 1906, a distinguished member of one of New York's most prestigious and powerful men's clubs - the Metropolitan Club - is found with his throat slashed, murdered within the club's walls. By all eyewitness accounts, the murder is another member - a man who, in actuality, wasn't there that night and, in fact, was across town in plain view of a hundred witnesses who can attest to his innocence. To J. P. Morgan, founding member of the Metropolitan Club, there is only one man to which he can trust with the swift and proper resolution of this impossible crime - his one-time nemesis, Sheriff John Le Brun of Jekyl Island, Georgia. Le Brun, a rough-hewn but brilliant man, is lured to turn of the century New York City by both his own curiosity about the city itself as well as the puzzle of the crime. Thrust in the midst of the cream of Manhattan society and intelligentsia, the elite and the powerful - including actor William Gillette, newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer, architect Stanford White, and financial colossal J. P. Morgan himself - Le Brun finds himself in a deadly struggle and race against time with an unseen foe, a mind perhaps as nimble as his own.
