Oh, how I do enjoy a story with a strong, bright, spunky, female protagonist and NYPD policewoman, Louise Faulk, fits that bill nicely. She has personal history which she safely guards and which influences her response when called on scene to an apparent suicide. The evidence is conflicted but the male detectives don't look beyond the initial evidence and the case is quickly closed. Louise, like a dog with a bone, won't let the case rest, even if it's against her superior's orders. After all, who ever heard of a female detective? It is 1914 after all.

Author Liz Freeland has deftly crafted an engaging historical mystery set in New York City of the early 20th century. She has done her historical research and delivered an informative and exciting story. She engages the readers' emotions and desire for justice served. How she weaves the headlines of the day into the story is just a marvel.

Although this book was third in series, it stands well enough on its own. Yet, the story and writing are so good, you might just want to start at the beginning with Freeland's, "Murder in Greenwich Village".

I am grateful to Liz Freeland and publisher Kensington Books for having provided a free advanced reader e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone. ( )

An Orphan of Hell's Kitchen is the third book in the "Louise Faulk" series, but the first I've read, and I'll definitely be tracking down the first two. The setting is fascinating—New York City just before the U.S. enters WWI—and the cast of characters is varied and well-thought-out. Faulk is a New York City policewoman, which at that time period mostly meant watching over women in holding cells and keeping one's temper when being condescended to by male colleagues. In this volume, she is present when the bodies of a mother and one of her two twin sons are discovered. The second of the twin boy is found sleeping in the next room. Because the woman is a prostitute, her male colleagues are quick to rule the deaths a murder-suicide, despite suggestions that the situation might be more complex. Faulk sets out to investigate on her own...

The novel includes a housemate who is an actress and a whole coterie of theater people—film and stage actors, composers and playwrights, some well known, some not. Faulk's aunt if a successful writer of mystery novels, quick to pull people into her social circle and always ready to use them as fodder for her writing.

An Orphan of Hell's Kitchen is more than a "cozy" mystery (which I'm not big on), but is also not a gore-fest. It's a solid mystery with interesting turns of plot, engaging characters, and a backstory and setting that fascinate. Highly recommended!

I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. ( )