Library Loot Review: The Harvey Girl

Never let it be said that blog reviews can't still get eyeballs in front of books. I first heard about The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow thanks to a review over at Books of My Heart. You don't read mysteries for long as I have, nor been a librarian for as long as I have, and not know who Dana Stabenow is. That said, I don't think I've ever read her before (I know, slightly surprising). But I'm only human and frankly I can't be expected to resist a historical mystery novel about a female Pinkerton agent who goes undercover as a Harvey Girl. That was enough for me and I secured myself an audiobook copy leveraging one of my library cards.

It's 1890 and Fred Harvey has a newer Harvey House located in the burgeoning city of Montaña Roja in New Mexico Territory. It's proving to be just as successful as his other Houses, just one small fly in the ointment - someone keeps robbing the trains carrying his supplies. There's been several robberies, always occurring during a full moon, occurring at such track junctures where the robbers can have an engine waiting to conveniently hook up the cars and ride away. Besides losing a fair bit of money, the train's conductor was murdered during the last robbery, so Harvey heads to Chicago to retain the services of the Pinkerton Agency. 

He gets Clare Wright, coming off a successful assignment. Clare will go undercover in Montaña Roja as Fred's latest Harvey Girl and start snooping around. What she didn't plan on? The amount of backbreaking work required of her to maintain her cover, that the local law is more than useless (and drunk half the time) and that a fresh dead body is going to turn up to complicate matters.

This is a story that runs on the shorter side, clocking in around 270 pages and just 7 hours on audiobook. Nothing wrong with that, it works at this length, but there are a ton of characters. The print version features a printed cast of characters and there are 26 of them. It did take a little while to find my sea legs and keep track of who was who and what was what - but I got there.

This is one of those books where real historical figures and events are featured in the story. Historical events in fiction usually work for me, but historical figures? It depends. Mightily. Here it's a mixed bag. Fred Harvey is necessary to the story given the plot. As are William and Robert Pinkerton, now running the agency after their father's passing. There's also Bat Masterton, a charming, interesting addition who is marginally needed for the proceedings. But Mark Twain? Totally unnecessary. Like why is he even in this book if only to add historical flavor where it's not really needed. Because by this point Stabenow has totally nailed the world-building. It's honestly the best part about this book. I never used to be a reader who would harp on things like world-building and craft but the older I get, the more I appreciate it - and Stabenow really immerses the reader in this world. Mark Twain may feel like filler, but so many other historical figures and tidbits do not.

What doesn't feel like filler? The historical events that play a role in this story. Robber Barons doing their scummy Robber Baron thing. US relations with Mexico. All the talk about the McKinley Tariff. I also appreciated that the author didn't whitewash the business of the Pinkerton Agency. Fun fact: they went were the money was, and if that money wanted them to break strikes and bust unions?  Guess what happened.

The story moves along at a good clip and Clare is an agreeable and amiable sleuth. That said, this is not a neat and tidy ending. The mystery is solved - sort of. Clare has discovered what's going on, she just can't prove it. Will this carry over into a future book featuring Clare or will she move on to her next assignment? Time will tell, because all indications as of right now say this is the first book in a new series. 

Final Grade = B