just finished reading...

A fast-paced police procedural set in turn-of-the-century New York City. The story opens with the murder of a young woman, Sarah Wingate. Sarah is a resident of the city but visiting relatives in the outskirts. Simon Ziele, the detective, had fled the city but finds himself drawn back to it. He meets Alistair Sinclair, a professor in the new field of criminology who suggests a suspect. Ziele and Sinclair become caught up in the scientific exploration and the investigation takes them through the beauty and the grime of the city--where things are not always what they seem and people are not who they seem.

The setting was as much a character as the people in this book. It wove history into the story and never lost a beat. And it kept me guessing, I didn't quite figure it out although I was on the right track.