Murder in Chelsea is Victoria Thompson's 15th gaslight mystery, the first one that I've read. My mother is a BIG fan, though, and I can see why.
Sarah Brandt, the "star" of these mysteries, is a young widowed midwife from an upper-class family. Her parents disapprove of their socially non-conformist daughter and her profession but love both Sarah and Catherine, the abandoned child that Sarah informally adopted as her own daughter a year ago. Because she is not married, Sarah cannot legally adopt 4-year-old Catherine, who was left at the Hope's Daughters Mission with no indication that anyone would ever come back for her. Sarah is devastated when she hears that a woman claiming to be Catherine's nursemaid has been inquiring about her, so her beau, policeman Frank Malloy sets off to investigate, only to find that the woman has been murdered in her tenement.
Thompson has created an intriguing, well-paced mystery filled with period details and customs. There is just enough romance and familial love to satisfy those who like a slightly softer edge to their murders. Even though there were 14 previous books that I haven't read in this series, I had no trouble deciphering the characters and their relationships and quickly felt that I knew them all well. This is a winner!
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