Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation

Author: Ricca, Brad

Edition: First Edition

Features:

• St Martin s Press

Number Of Pages: 448

Details:

Nominated for a 2018 Edgar Award in Best Fact CrimeRecipient of the ★ Kirkus Star, Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit A 2017 True Crime Book for Summer, The New York Times Sunday Book Review"An express train of a story." - Kirkus Reviews "Heroic...her inspiring story demands a hearing." -The New York Times Sunday Book Review Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Mrs. Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime fighters during an era when women weren't even allowed to vote. After graduating from N.Y.U. law school, Grace opened a legal clinic in the city for low-income immigrant clients, and quickly established a reputation as a fierce, but fair lawyer who was always on the side of the disenfranchised.   Grace's motto "Justice for those of limited means" led her to strange cases all over the city, and eventually the world. From defending an innocent giant on death row to investigating an island in Arkansas with a terrible secret about slavery; from the warring halls of Congress to a crumbling medieval tower in Italy, Grace solved crimes in-between shopping at Bergdorf Goodman and being marked for death by the sinister Black Hand. She defended a young wife who shot her would-be rapist and fought the framing of a Baltimore black man at the mercy of a corrupt police department. Known for dressing only in black, Grace was appointed the first woman U.S. district attorney in history. And when a pretty 18-year-old girl named Ruth Cruger went missing on Valentine's Day in New York, Grace took the case after  the police gave up. Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled Hungarian detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous mystery of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops,underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man-- in a desperate race against time to save Ruth. When she solved the crime, she was made the first female consulting detective to the NYPD. But despite her many successes in social and criminal justice, Grace began to see chilling connections in the cases she had solved, leading to a final showdown with her most fearsome adversary of all and one of the most powerful men of the twentieth century.   This is the first-ever literary biography of the singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. In the narrative tradition of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City, her poignant story unmasks unmistakable connections between missing girls,the role of the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The great mystery of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes -- and its haunting twist ending -- is how could one woman with so much power disappear so completely? From School Library Journal In 1917, an 18-year-old went missing in broad daylight. In 1905, a newly minted female lawyer took on a seemingly impossible case and won. Alternating between Ruth Cruger's 1917 disappearance and earlier cases, Ricca's vividly written narrative brings to life the groundbreaking work of attorney Mary Grace Quackenbos Humiston, who championed the rights of immigrants, the poor, and young girls. She often successfully made appeals to overturn wrongful convictions, saving several people from execution at the last minute. As a detective, she took on cases, such as Cruger's, that the police had abandoned, becoming the first female U.S. district attorney and, later, a special investigator with the New York Police Department. Though this is a thoroughly researched example of nonfiction, with extensive notes and bibliography, Ricca's storytelling ability easily allows readers to forget they are reading history instead of a novel. The descriptions of Humiston's work, with its tension and danger, offer a fascinating window on daily life and policing in New York in the early 20th century, and many of the causes she backed remain current social problems. VERDICT A compelling l...

EAN: 9781250072245

Release Date: 03-01-2017

Languages: English

Item Condition: New

Binding: Hardcover