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Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
This is the shocking and amazing true story of the first female U.S. District Attorney and traveling detective who found missing 18-year-old Ruth Cruger when the entire NYPD had given up.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective, and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime-fighters during an era when women were still not allowed to vote. After agreeing to take the sensational case of missing eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man, in a desperate race against time.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is the first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. Her poignant story reveals important clues about missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The great mystery of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes―and the haunting twist ending of the book―is how one woman could become so famous only to disappear completely.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective, and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime-fighters during an era when women were still not allowed to vote. After agreeing to take the sensational case of missing eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man, in a desperate race against time.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is the first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. Her poignant story reveals important clues about missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The great mystery of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes―and the haunting twist ending of the book―is how one woman could become so famous only to disappear completely.
13 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 3, 2017
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About the author
Brad Ricca
17 books266 followersBrad Ricca is the award-winning author of Lincoln's Ghost (forthcoming 2025), the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Ten Days in a Mad-house with artist Courtney Sieh (2022), True Raiders (2021), Olive the Lionheart (2020), the Edgar-nominated Mrs. Sherlock Holmes (2017), and Super Boys (2014), winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Nonfiction and a Booklist Top 10 Book on the Arts. He is also the author of American Mastodon, winner of the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award. His indie film Last Son (2010) won a Silver Ace Award. He is an English major with a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where he lives with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,213 reviews
February 7, 2017
I feel rather like the victim of a bait-and-switch con. Was drawn to this as it promised to be a biography of a talented woman, ahead of her time and largely unknown today with a Sherlock Holmes twist. Wrong. This turned out to be a dissatisfying, unfocused 'creative non-fiction' book full of rambling, tedious detail in which the central character, Grace Humiston, one of the first female lawyers and crusader for the poor and immigrants, faded in an out of the reader's view while the author showed his research as he jumped around in time. What was the point of the opening chapter about Arthur Conan Doyle's visit to New York? It had nothing to do with Grace's story other than to note the popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the popular consciousness. When newspapers dubbed Grace "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" she dismissed the notion saying her technique of investigation did not include deduction but rather common sense and perseverance and she noted that she had never read a Holmes story. So much for the Sherlock aspect promised by the title. By the end of the book I didn't really feel I had come to know Grace... she just kind of faded away as did her reputation at the time. I never felt uplifted by the life of this woman, just rather sad about how it all turned out.
November 16, 2018
In the era before women could vote, an extraordinary detective and lawyer was solving crimes the police couldn't and defending those who couldn't afford it. Her name was Grace Humiston and this is her story.
Grace was admitted to the bar in the state of New York in 1905, becoming one of only a thousand female lawyers in the whole United States. pg 29
Readers, this lady was incredible. Though she fell out of public favor later in her career, Grace accomplished so much. She was the first woman to become a consulting detective for the New York Police Department. They formed a missing persons bureau because of her work to reform how they searched for victims of crimes.
Grace was even the first woman to serve as a Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney. She brought down businesses that were abusing immigrants through peonage practices. I'm telling you, this lady was hardcore.
The case that catapulted her into the limelight was the disappearance of Ruth Cruger, a teenager who went to get her ice skates sharpened in New York City and never returned. Her family insisted Ruth wouldn't have run away, as the authorities suggested when they reported her disappearance.
"My girl has been kidnapped," Henry said to the reporters. "This talk about her having gone away voluntarily is an unwarranted insult to her and to us. It is nothing more than a screen for police shirking." pg 47
So who did he call? Grace Humiston.
When a reporter asked about how she had solved the case so quickly after the police had given up, Grace did not couch her words. "To begin with, the police are no good," Grace told the reporter. "They had all the facts to start on that I had and did nothing." pg 71
Savage.
The facts of this story merit a five-star rating but how they are organized brought down my rating of this book. Brad Ricca opens with the Ruth Cruger case and puts chapters inbetween detailing Grace's history. It disturbs the flow of the story. I think if he had gone from an opening, gripping chapter about Ruth into a chronologically organized history, I may have enjoyed it more.
Another gripe some readers had with Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is that it had an unsatisfying conclusion. I'm not of that opinion. Often, life doesn't end stories with a bowtie or an ending worthy of their beginning. In non-fiction, especially when careers rise and then fall as in this book, there isn't a satisfying ending to be had.
I enjoyed learning about this extraordinary lady and I appreciate the level of research Ricca put into these pages. One can feel, especially in the conclusion, how this was a labor of love for him. Not just to bring Grace back into the public's mind and heart, but also to remind readers about how people still go missing today and, sometimes, they're never found.
I wanted to reprint all the people gone missing in the last year here, at the end, but it would not have been 'cost effective', they told me, even in the smallest type. So think of one name for me. Maybe it is someone you know. Or someone you saw on a show or a flier once. Or maybe it is your name, or a name you once had. Whoever it is, write that name here.... pgs 362-363
We are solving more and more cold cases with the advent of DNA databases. Perhaps some day this issue will be a thing of the past. Until then, we'll rely on the Graces of today to lead us, clue by clue, to wherever the trail ends.
Grace was admitted to the bar in the state of New York in 1905, becoming one of only a thousand female lawyers in the whole United States. pg 29
Readers, this lady was incredible. Though she fell out of public favor later in her career, Grace accomplished so much. She was the first woman to become a consulting detective for the New York Police Department. They formed a missing persons bureau because of her work to reform how they searched for victims of crimes.
Grace was even the first woman to serve as a Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney. She brought down businesses that were abusing immigrants through peonage practices. I'm telling you, this lady was hardcore.
The case that catapulted her into the limelight was the disappearance of Ruth Cruger, a teenager who went to get her ice skates sharpened in New York City and never returned. Her family insisted Ruth wouldn't have run away, as the authorities suggested when they reported her disappearance.
"My girl has been kidnapped," Henry said to the reporters. "This talk about her having gone away voluntarily is an unwarranted insult to her and to us. It is nothing more than a screen for police shirking." pg 47
So who did he call? Grace Humiston.
When a reporter asked about how she had solved the case so quickly after the police had given up, Grace did not couch her words. "To begin with, the police are no good," Grace told the reporter. "They had all the facts to start on that I had and did nothing." pg 71
Savage.
The facts of this story merit a five-star rating but how they are organized brought down my rating of this book. Brad Ricca opens with the Ruth Cruger case and puts chapters inbetween detailing Grace's history. It disturbs the flow of the story. I think if he had gone from an opening, gripping chapter about Ruth into a chronologically organized history, I may have enjoyed it more.
Another gripe some readers had with Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is that it had an unsatisfying conclusion. I'm not of that opinion. Often, life doesn't end stories with a bowtie or an ending worthy of their beginning. In non-fiction, especially when careers rise and then fall as in this book, there isn't a satisfying ending to be had.
I enjoyed learning about this extraordinary lady and I appreciate the level of research Ricca put into these pages. One can feel, especially in the conclusion, how this was a labor of love for him. Not just to bring Grace back into the public's mind and heart, but also to remind readers about how people still go missing today and, sometimes, they're never found.
I wanted to reprint all the people gone missing in the last year here, at the end, but it would not have been 'cost effective', they told me, even in the smallest type. So think of one name for me. Maybe it is someone you know. Or someone you saw on a show or a flier once. Or maybe it is your name, or a name you once had. Whoever it is, write that name here.... pgs 362-363
We are solving more and more cold cases with the advent of DNA databases. Perhaps some day this issue will be a thing of the past. Until then, we'll rely on the Graces of today to lead us, clue by clue, to wherever the trail ends.
February 13, 2017
Overall this book disappointed me; however, I am conflicted about how to rate it because I found the story itself very interesting, and there were parts that I really got into. I'd say 2.5 stars. The first quarter of the book dragged, the middle picked up a lot and was really good, and the end dragged again. This felt similar in theory to an Erik Larson book, but it wasn't as well written/captivating. The author sometimes focused on very minute details that he obviously came across during his research, but they didn't end up being directly relevant to the story so I was confused by why they were included (example: describing multiple items on a minor character's desk). After reading this book, I am not convinced that Grace really deserves the name of "greatest female detective." I feel that subtitle is misleading based on this author's account and perhaps the story could have been written to highlight more of her work to make this more clear. I am impressed by the author's clear attention to detail and research, especially after skimming through the "notes" section. Another review I read of this said "A for story, D for organization," and I would unfortunately have to agree. I ended up skimming the last couple of chapters. I can't recommend this. Check out Erik Larson if you want really good historical nonfiction.
December 22, 2016
I couldn't put this book down! It grabbed me from page one. For a non-fiction book, it was very well written and even felt like fiction (by it's flow and pace) at times. The story of Mrs. Grace Humiston was one I had never heard of before reading this book, and I was extremely impressed by her life, and the strides she made. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, even those who may not normally read non-fiction.
March 3, 2017
Aspects of this book were fascinating but ultimately it suffered from a meandering lack of focus. The story of Ruth Cruger and Grace's investigation of her disappearance, as well as the story of some of Grace's early cases, was very interesting, but after that the story just wandered. There were points in there somewhere, but not clearly stated or followed up on. I liked the first half but it devolved into being just ok.
February 7, 2017
Someone called this book a "bait-and-switch", and they're absolutely correct. The story itself was absorbing, but the writing was childish--I felt at certain points as though I was reading a picture book for adults--and the book really has very little to do with Sherlock Holmes apart from the introduction, which felt tacked on. This wasn't a particularly good biography and the missing girl case was only a part of the book's focus. I can't honestly recommend this to anyone.
February 8, 2017
The truth about Grace Humiston is in there somewhere, hidden amid a jumbled farrago of facts, half-truths and innuendo. There's lots of focus on the cases she undertook, very little on the woman herself, which is a shame, she's a great subject. Here's a woman who was brave, tenacious, smart and ready to challenge authority and prejudice wherever it was met. In the telling, veracity is sacrificed to readability - it's more crime novel than fact-gathering non-fiction. The author states the book's sources extend across newspaper articles, government reports, court documents, magazine exposes, muckraking stories, gossip and deduction. The sum total amounts only to a hollow, one-dimensional picture of "the woman in black". There are too many gaps in her background and too little context of the politics and police work of the period to feel any acquaintance with "Mrs Sherlock". She remains as elusive as the certainty that justice was truly done in the cases she took on.
September 25, 2017
Remarkable and inventive factual story of an amazing woman ahead of her time.
February 10, 2017
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes was a real person, a lawyer named Grace Humiston who practiced in New York City, specializing in defending clients who didn't have money or influence and often were immigrants who had a slippery grasp of English let alone the New York legal code. In true Perry Mason form, her cases often involved her having to solve a mystery in order to find justice.
The main story of the narrative is that of the disappearance of Ruth Crueger from her New York neighborhood in 1917. She was one of hundreds of young women who disappeared every year. Police usually assumed the women disappeared willingly with their boyfriends and didn't spend too much effort to try to find them. Grace Humiston knew that many of the women had been kidnapped. She was pretty sure Ruth was one of those women and moved heaven and earth to prove that Ruth had met with foul play.
It's a good mystery with plenty of early 20th century atmosphere, but the narrative skips around some, making it hard to keep track of when and where the action is taking place. Most of what we know about Humiston and her cases comes from newspaper reporting, which was not always the most accurate in those days. In fact, many New York dailies were far more interested in salacious reporting than fact checking. Some of the other resources used for the book were true crime magazines, another category of publication in which selling copies often meant racy headlines at the expense of accurate reporting.
There are also federal court transcripts and reports, which give a varnish of credibility to the accounts, but this is still a book to be read for entertainment more than for historical accuracy. And it certainly is entertaining.
The main story of the narrative is that of the disappearance of Ruth Crueger from her New York neighborhood in 1917. She was one of hundreds of young women who disappeared every year. Police usually assumed the women disappeared willingly with their boyfriends and didn't spend too much effort to try to find them. Grace Humiston knew that many of the women had been kidnapped. She was pretty sure Ruth was one of those women and moved heaven and earth to prove that Ruth had met with foul play.
It's a good mystery with plenty of early 20th century atmosphere, but the narrative skips around some, making it hard to keep track of when and where the action is taking place. Most of what we know about Humiston and her cases comes from newspaper reporting, which was not always the most accurate in those days. In fact, many New York dailies were far more interested in salacious reporting than fact checking. Some of the other resources used for the book were true crime magazines, another category of publication in which selling copies often meant racy headlines at the expense of accurate reporting.
There are also federal court transcripts and reports, which give a varnish of credibility to the accounts, but this is still a book to be read for entertainment more than for historical accuracy. And it certainly is entertaining.
August 14, 2019
The absorbing writing had me lured in enough to read the whole book. But there are an overwhelming amount of tangents that distract you from the main story and unnecessary descriptions of what minor characters were wearing. Also, it is not a linear story. It bounces around in timelines, which can be confusing if you're not paying attention. The title and the subtitle are false advertising; Grace Humiston was nothing like Sherlock Holmes. Despite all that, I still enjoyed reading it.
July 18, 2017
Grace Humiston was for a time known as "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes," a detective who had risen to near the top of the U.S. Department of Justice in the early 1900s, shone light on slavery rings and was a near-constant newspaper presence as she shamed the NYPD in her resolution of the nationally notorious disappearance of a young woman from the streets of Manhattan. Brad Ricca here dives deep in telling her story – too deep at times, as he spends pages faithfully transcribing tangentially related details and conversations – and it's a story well worth telling. Unfortunately, a taut and impressive first half devolves into a confusing and frustrating read.
No doubt, some of that confusion is a result of the historical record itself – the usual suspects, including carelessness and fires, combined to wipe out many of the primary sources one would rely on to tell this kind of story – but no small amount is Ricca's meandering, even jumpy, narrative style. One example that I found especially aggravating, and stands in for numerous other, smaller offenses: Grace Humiston was married twice, and we don't learn this fact until an odd afterword that essentially dumps all of the information about every character who previously appeared in the book, but which wouldn't fit within the narrative itself. The result is that Grace's last name changes without comment in the middle of the narrative, and unsurprisingly leads the reader to spend some time in confusion, wondering whether this new Grace is the same as the old Grace, or happens to be a different detective who happens to be named Grace.
A similar complaint is that Ricca seems allergic to informed speculation or extrapolation. Although he frequently reconstructs scenes with assumed reactions (people in conversations frequently make gestures and facial expressions that appear to simply be assumptions based on the text of the dialogue itself), Ricca relies so heavily on the reported content that he leaves unexplained gaping holes into which the reader falls (when searching for a missing girl in what is one of the key scenes of the story, a detective leads a dig through a coal vault into a cellar, but despite reading through the that section twice, I have no idea how or when they got from one to the other), or does not attempt to explain, for example, why Humiston insisted, to the detriment of her public credibility, that thousands of girls and young women were being abducted and trafficked in New York despite all evidence and data to the contrary? Was she deluded? Misguided? The woman who alone had truly grasped the scope of the scandal? Ricca never even asks the questions, much less attempt an answer.
Adding to the frustration of reading a book that began with such promise and includes some truly fascinating pieces of history about which I was unaware was a paucity of photos and a complete absence of maps, despite pictures being described in the text and a heavy reliance on various street names and addresses in Manhattan, as well as the floor plan of a specific building.
Like I said, there's a lot of good stuff here, but the overall effect was to make me wish it had been placed in the service of a voice that was more self-assured, and more meticulous. The confidence to make educated guesses, with the attention to the right kinds of detail that would have aided the reader, would have made Mrs. Sherlock Holmes a really terrific book.
No doubt, some of that confusion is a result of the historical record itself – the usual suspects, including carelessness and fires, combined to wipe out many of the primary sources one would rely on to tell this kind of story – but no small amount is Ricca's meandering, even jumpy, narrative style. One example that I found especially aggravating, and stands in for numerous other, smaller offenses: Grace Humiston was married twice, and we don't learn this fact until an odd afterword that essentially dumps all of the information about every character who previously appeared in the book, but which wouldn't fit within the narrative itself. The result is that Grace's last name changes without comment in the middle of the narrative, and unsurprisingly leads the reader to spend some time in confusion, wondering whether this new Grace is the same as the old Grace, or happens to be a different detective who happens to be named Grace.
A similar complaint is that Ricca seems allergic to informed speculation or extrapolation. Although he frequently reconstructs scenes with assumed reactions (people in conversations frequently make gestures and facial expressions that appear to simply be assumptions based on the text of the dialogue itself), Ricca relies so heavily on the reported content that he leaves unexplained gaping holes into which the reader falls (when searching for a missing girl in what is one of the key scenes of the story, a detective leads a dig through a coal vault into a cellar, but despite reading through the that section twice, I have no idea how or when they got from one to the other), or does not attempt to explain, for example, why Humiston insisted, to the detriment of her public credibility, that thousands of girls and young women were being abducted and trafficked in New York despite all evidence and data to the contrary? Was she deluded? Misguided? The woman who alone had truly grasped the scope of the scandal? Ricca never even asks the questions, much less attempt an answer.
Adding to the frustration of reading a book that began with such promise and includes some truly fascinating pieces of history about which I was unaware was a paucity of photos and a complete absence of maps, despite pictures being described in the text and a heavy reliance on various street names and addresses in Manhattan, as well as the floor plan of a specific building.
Like I said, there's a lot of good stuff here, but the overall effect was to make me wish it had been placed in the service of a voice that was more self-assured, and more meticulous. The confidence to make educated guesses, with the attention to the right kinds of detail that would have aided the reader, would have made Mrs. Sherlock Holmes a really terrific book.
May 5, 2021
This is an extremely well researched deep dive into the life of Grace Humiston, one of the first woman lawyers in the country and the first woman to be employed by the Attorney General's Office. It also serves as a great review of the great white slavery panic of the early 1900s. If either of those sound like something you'd be interested in, then you will love this book!
However, I did the worst thing you can as a reader: I judged the book by its cover. I did not even read the back cover. I read the title and looked at the cover. I assumed that this book would be a historical fiction that either imagined Sherlock Holmes as having a wife, or as a woman so great at solving mysteries that that was her professional name. To be fair Grace was amazing as a detective for all of her clients. It just wasn't what I was expecting and/or hoping for.
Once I moved on from my surprise and disappointment, I did enjoy the knowledge I was gaining. Humiston's rise and fall from grace in the eyes of the media and public is not anything new to any reader who is familiar with politicians and others in the public eye being held accountable for something the public disagrees with. However, Ricca's writing style did seem a bit grandiose while describing the settings and dialogues. I know that other readers do enjoy this, but with actual stories based on facts, I am not a fan of that style.
However, I did the worst thing you can as a reader: I judged the book by its cover. I did not even read the back cover. I read the title and looked at the cover. I assumed that this book would be a historical fiction that either imagined Sherlock Holmes as having a wife, or as a woman so great at solving mysteries that that was her professional name. To be fair Grace was amazing as a detective for all of her clients. It just wasn't what I was expecting and/or hoping for.
Once I moved on from my surprise and disappointment, I did enjoy the knowledge I was gaining. Humiston's rise and fall from grace in the eyes of the media and public is not anything new to any reader who is familiar with politicians and others in the public eye being held accountable for something the public disagrees with. However, Ricca's writing style did seem a bit grandiose while describing the settings and dialogues. I know that other readers do enjoy this, but with actual stories based on facts, I am not a fan of that style.
December 2, 2017
Although it was evident to me from the beginning that this book was very well researched, I felt annoyed with the author in the first pages because of his style to tell the story. Ricca knows incredibly well the topic of his book. He "sees" the scene going on in front of his eyes, and his style is in part to describe this scene to the reader. Then the reader will find many observations like these (no spoilers):
"Christina coughed, steaming up the window again."
"His voice seemed like it was starting and stopping as he figured out the right words."
"As the train clacked forward, Kron absently read the ads for folding Brownie cameras and refreshing Coca-Cola"
When you check his sources you understand he is not using information from diaries or personal letters, but painting the picture for the reader. I got annoyed and stopped reading the book for a couple of days, trying to decide if I would read o give up on it. This kind of things make me doubt the content of the book, I can't help it. But Grace Humiston's story is so fascinating, that I decided to give Ricca a chance. And I am glad I did it.
Now that I finished the book I can say that I clearly know what are facts and what is Ricca's picture, since it is not confusing at all. It is definitively his style, he is not trying to cheat the reader, but bring NYC and its characters into life. He says it himself once you reach the end of the Author's Note at the end of the book: "And while the larger events here have been investigated and presented as truth, there are still connections that had to be imagined-small gestures, moments, and emotions-that are laid over an infrastructure of facts. This is a story about real people, not just their vital statistics".
And about Grace Humiston... what I could say? She was an amazing woman. I am happy someone decided to tell her story. I wonder how many other characters like her remain still hidden.
"Christina coughed, steaming up the window again."
"His voice seemed like it was starting and stopping as he figured out the right words."
"As the train clacked forward, Kron absently read the ads for folding Brownie cameras and refreshing Coca-Cola"
When you check his sources you understand he is not using information from diaries or personal letters, but painting the picture for the reader. I got annoyed and stopped reading the book for a couple of days, trying to decide if I would read o give up on it. This kind of things make me doubt the content of the book, I can't help it. But Grace Humiston's story is so fascinating, that I decided to give Ricca a chance. And I am glad I did it.
Now that I finished the book I can say that I clearly know what are facts and what is Ricca's picture, since it is not confusing at all. It is definitively his style, he is not trying to cheat the reader, but bring NYC and its characters into life. He says it himself once you reach the end of the Author's Note at the end of the book: "And while the larger events here have been investigated and presented as truth, there are still connections that had to be imagined-small gestures, moments, and emotions-that are laid over an infrastructure of facts. This is a story about real people, not just their vital statistics".
And about Grace Humiston... what I could say? She was an amazing woman. I am happy someone decided to tell her story. I wonder how many other characters like her remain still hidden.
June 26, 2018
This book is just excellent. I learned about Grace Humiston through the TV show "Timeless" and wanted to find out more about her. I learned so much from this book! I really recommend it! If you normally read non-fiction, you'll love it, but even people who don't read non-fiction would like this book -- it really sucks you in and you'll feel like you are reading a novel. There are so many fascinating stories about Grace's life and career, it's truly amazing all the things she accomplished with her life. Thank you, Brad Ricca, for this informative and truly entertaining book.
February 16, 2017
I skimmed a fair amount when it became repetitive or seemed purposeless. With more editing this might have been better.
January 11, 2017
This book was very captivating, but very uneven, too. The first half built up the story so well, but then after the mystery was revealed, I felt it really fell flat and rambled on for another hundred pages or so. I feel that I didn't get a full story of either Grace or Ruth (or any of the other dozen interesting characters that were introduced and not quite fully explored.... in fact, by the end, I had a hard time keeping track and the epilogue wasn't much help). Most of the writing was good, but then there were times where certain turns of phrase were super corny or overly-wrought. If the story were more focused and edited a little better, I feel that it would be more on par with Erik Larson type books.
July 26, 2017
A really interesting book about a brilliant woman ahead of her time. This book is part about a woman called Grace Humiston and part a story about a missing young female skater Ruth Cruger. This book is their story. I really liked the way the author has written this book. It tells about Grace Humiston professional life and how she came to be known as Mrs.Sherlock Holmes.
August 7, 2018
It's been a long journey. Four months
Err.. 2 and a half really.
It was an extremely well-researched novel. Even though the author likely did use his imagination at some points to fill in the blanks.
The story-telling was pretty good. I was a little confused in the beginning given how it kept going back and forth. But it got better by the middle but then my interest declined towards the end.
Err.. 2 and a half really.
It was an extremely well-researched novel. Even though the author likely did use his imagination at some points to fill in the blanks.
The story-telling was pretty good. I was a little confused in the beginning given how it kept going back and forth. But it got better by the middle but then my interest declined towards the end.
August 29, 2017
DNF for me.
I don't like the switch back from 1905 to 1917.
I don't get why the Cruger case is being highlighted in excruciating detail - other things she's done sound more interesting.
I can't even follow which name she's using, & in which time period.
Perhaps I'll revisit this, but right now it's not for me.
I don't like the switch back from 1905 to 1917.
I don't get why the Cruger case is being highlighted in excruciating detail - other things she's done sound more interesting.
I can't even follow which name she's using, & in which time period.
Perhaps I'll revisit this, but right now it's not for me.
April 28, 2018
A fun paced book about a lady who solved a crime through sheer determination in 1917. I liked the book despite the hero worship of the author who gave a scant account of her 2 divorces.
October 18, 2022
“Vice conditions here in the city are astounding,” Grace said. “The ‘good people’ of New York are as much asleep to the nastiness of their city as the nation appears to be to the seriousness of our war.”
A well-written, if pointless history of the career of a female detective. If she was New York’s greatest, New York is in trouble. Grace Humiston’s approach to crime foreshadowed Joe McCarthy’s to politics. She saw all crime through a single lens—white slavery—and developed her cases accordingly.
Grace had gone from the most celebrated woman in New York City to something of a pariah. But she was still trying to save the girls of her city.
Twice as long as necessary. Too many rabbit trails; too many extraneous details. Paid by the word? Ricca seems proud of every shred of fact he unearthed relating to Humiston or anyone she met on the street.
“I believe the city as a whole has felt that the work of the police department was and is steadily improving,” the mayor said. New Yorkers read it in disbelief.
That said, an interesting recreation of New York City crime, corruption, and journalism a hundred years ago. Little seems to have changed other than technology.
The reader must, as those of the time had to, consider each individual source. That is part of the story, too.
A well-written, if pointless history of the career of a female detective. If she was New York’s greatest, New York is in trouble. Grace Humiston’s approach to crime foreshadowed Joe McCarthy’s to politics. She saw all crime through a single lens—white slavery—and developed her cases accordingly.
Grace had gone from the most celebrated woman in New York City to something of a pariah. But she was still trying to save the girls of her city.
Twice as long as necessary. Too many rabbit trails; too many extraneous details. Paid by the word? Ricca seems proud of every shred of fact he unearthed relating to Humiston or anyone she met on the street.
“I believe the city as a whole has felt that the work of the police department was and is steadily improving,” the mayor said. New Yorkers read it in disbelief.
That said, an interesting recreation of New York City crime, corruption, and journalism a hundred years ago. Little seems to have changed other than technology.
The reader must, as those of the time had to, consider each individual source. That is part of the story, too.
November 19, 2018
I enjoyed the story of the impressive MC in this story, Mrs. Grace Humiston. She was an exceptional woman, as a detective and a lawyer and the first woman U.S. district attorney in history. She fought corruption at every turn, fought for women's rights and investigated white slavery.
May 12, 2020
Really enjoyed this real life crime book. Fascinating story.
June 21, 2024
Where to begin with this mess of a book? I could go on forever about how bad this book is, but here are the highlights:
* The Introduction about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visiting New York City had nothing to do with the rest of the book. NOTHING.
* The book jumps around in time so you get nice and thoroughly confused.
* Important biographical information about the woman featured in this book (Grace) is not given until page 360. This is stuff we should have been told right off the bat. She even goes through a sudden name change without any explanation for about 50 pages or so.
* The Notes in the back are often more interesting than the chapters they support.
* I realize that this is a work of "creative nonfiction" (whatever that means) but there should be limits. Wondering how a murder victim spends time in the afterlife (or the last day of her life, I'm not sure which) is just mental masturbation and not writing.
* The author kept dropping hints that Grace would save a wrongly accussed man from hanging -- but the man swung anyway. What the hell???
The main problem is the woman at the focus of this book. She may have raised eyebrows becoming a lawyer just after the turn of the century, but she didn't accomplish much. Most of her work helped no one and was ignored. Her almost monomaniacal fixation on white slavery (slavery of other colors being okay, I guess) was embarassing to read.
How does crap like this get published?
* The Introduction about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visiting New York City had nothing to do with the rest of the book. NOTHING.
* The book jumps around in time so you get nice and thoroughly confused.
* Important biographical information about the woman featured in this book (Grace) is not given until page 360. This is stuff we should have been told right off the bat. She even goes through a sudden name change without any explanation for about 50 pages or so.
* The Notes in the back are often more interesting than the chapters they support.
* I realize that this is a work of "creative nonfiction" (whatever that means) but there should be limits. Wondering how a murder victim spends time in the afterlife (or the last day of her life, I'm not sure which) is just mental masturbation and not writing.
* The author kept dropping hints that Grace would save a wrongly accussed man from hanging -- but the man swung anyway. What the hell???
The main problem is the woman at the focus of this book. She may have raised eyebrows becoming a lawyer just after the turn of the century, but she didn't accomplish much. Most of her work helped no one and was ignored. Her almost monomaniacal fixation on white slavery (slavery of other colors being okay, I guess) was embarassing to read.
How does crap like this get published?
June 3, 2017
Absolutely fascinating story. I can't quite give it a full 5 stars -- in fact, it might really be more like a 3.75 -- but only because of a few quibbles.
First, the good: If you're looking for a mix of biography and true crime, this is an excellent book, reading more like a novel than an historical account. Because of that, I see some people have given lower ratings feeling as though the author has "cheated" somehow. I'll just say I do not feel that way.
As for my quibbles, they center on two things. 1) It seems to me as though the question of the central mystery -- what happened to Ruth Cruger -- wrapped much sooner than I expected even though there were definitely threads left loose to tie of closer to or at the end. This then leads to 2) where the book focuses on some other cases Grace was involved in that aren't quite as notable.
Still, not having read non-fiction in ages, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it.
First, the good: If you're looking for a mix of biography and true crime, this is an excellent book, reading more like a novel than an historical account. Because of that, I see some people have given lower ratings feeling as though the author has "cheated" somehow. I'll just say I do not feel that way.
As for my quibbles, they center on two things. 1) It seems to me as though the question of the central mystery -- what happened to Ruth Cruger -- wrapped much sooner than I expected even though there were definitely threads left loose to tie of closer to or at the end. This then leads to 2) where the book focuses on some other cases Grace was involved in that aren't quite as notable.
Still, not having read non-fiction in ages, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it.
March 15, 2023
I don't know what I was expecting going into this book but it was most definitely not what I was reading!! I thought this would be more crime based and told a true story of a woman getting ahead in a mans world by solving murders. But this lost my interest fast!!! It has a great promise and could have went way better than it did. Just the thought of a woman back in the 1800s doing a job better than a man can is a great way to snag a lady's attention. Back in them days woman held their tongue and didn't dare to try and out do a man in anything but being a house wife and mother. I bought this book hoping also it would be more like a Sherlock Holmes read but nope failed again! And I may not have given it enough time to really get me but 60 pages and I was just blah blah blah... literally skimming trying to find something to grasp my attention. Maybe it was the timing with me reading other books I may try again I don't know. But for the time being this one is going on my bookshelf.
February 12, 2018
This book suffers from an identity crisis. The author, it seems, couldn't quite decide on this being a biography or a true murder mystery. the end result is a bad mix of both with meandering stories ending in anti-climax. I was disappointed.
February 7, 2017
Highly recommended. This book kept me up all night can't stop reading. Very well written. Wonder why such story have not come across Nancy Drew or Sherlock Holmes himself...
April 5, 2017
I could not finish this book. The premise sounded fantastic (I am a huge Sherlock fan!) but the story line seemed to jump around, and it was just too difficult to read! I was vastly disappointed!
November 6, 2022
This read like a list and I was interested but then bored.
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