August 2, 2025

Review: Treachery on Tenth Street

I finished Treachery on Tenth Street, the third book in Kate Belli's Gilded Gotham historical mystery series weeks ago. As in, early July sometime and y'all I just haven't had the spoons to do much of anything involving my longtime hobby (reading, blogging...) lately. But since I blogged about the first two in the series and I'm about halfway through the final book in the series, well the completist in me started getting twitchy so here we are.

This is a tale of two stories for me.  There were parts of it I really liked and parts of it that fell flat. Society reporter, Genevieve Stewart, and her partner in crime, Five Points gang member turned a member of the Astor 400, Daniel McCaffrey, become embroiled in the murder of artist's model Beatrice Holler at the behest of Genevieve's friend Callie Maple. Callie was once a society girl like Genevieve, but she and her grandmother fell on hard times through a series of bad investments. Once grandma died, Callie, citing needing some time alone to figure out her life, slipped into the ether, only to return as an artist's model and wealthy man's mistress. She knew Beatrice casually through their social circle and the police, despite the woman being found with her throat slit, are saying her death was accidental. 

Genevieve and Daniel are still recovering from the events and trauma that happened in the first two books, but Callie is a friend and Genevieve smells a story. The police cover-up boggles the mind until they learn why it's happening. Beatrice isn't the only victim and they want to quell rumors that Jack the Ripper has left London and has set up shop in New York City.

The setting driving this story forward is really different and interesting - the art scene in late 19th century New York and the women within that community living, what would be seen, as very unconventional, even scandalous lives. On top of that it's summer in New York and an infernal heat wave is gripping the city. Unfortunately it's all wrapped up in a rather pedestrian serial killer plot with some uneven pacing. I'll admit, after the more imaginative suspense threads in the first two books, a serial killer feels rather passé. It takes a while for the plot to find it's footing and once we land on Coney Island I was getting bored for something, anything to happen. Luckily it does in Coney Island, and it's rather shocking - but fitting given we're working with a serial killer plot.

Unfortunately the denouement didn't entirely work for me. We get the ol' unhinged and "crazy" culprit, which doesn't fit entirely with that character's actions preceding in the earlier chapters. I don't like to compare one book by an author to another, but frankly that's hard not to do when you're talking about a series, and this one just lacks some of the more compelling juice I found in the first two entries.

That being said, the backdrop of this story is very interesting, the Daniel/Genevieve romance takes a major step forward, and at this point I'm so invested in the world and characters things would have to seriously run off the rails for me to hate this. It wasn't as compelling for me as the first two but it does move things forward and I didn't hesitate to grab the final book in the series.

Final Grade = B-

5 comments:

azteclady said...

First: so far, all these books have been B and above for you, which a) yay! and b) I must get them.

Second: because NetGalley, I have the fourth book in the series in my ARC shelves, which means I *really* must find a way to get the first three--a trip to my local UBS is in my near future and I will add them to the (already so long, gog help me) list.

azteclady said...

(the price for the ebooks is *higher* than many new trade paperbacks; rather than pay that for a license to read, I'll try to get used print copies that will actually be mine)

Wendy said...

Oh the digital prices on these books are just stupid. I had the first book in my TBR thanks to Netgalley, but I've gotten the next three books from work.

Sadly, I think this is a series where it's best to read in order because the books really do build on each other, advancing the characterizations and the relationship between the protagonists. I'm halfway through the last book now, and after the disappointment in the serial killer plot in this book, we've got a serial arsonist, which I'm finding a lot more compelling.

azteclady said...

When it's a short series like this, I would read them in order no matter what, but I've been waiting for the digital edition to go on sale for a while, and they don't, so, UBS and print copies, hopefully.

azteclady said...

(dammit, hit publish too soon!)

And: hooray for a stronger plot with the last one! keeping fingers crossed for a fantastic resolution.