If I'm watching older, variously obscure movies, I must be at my dad's. If I'm at my dad's, I must be reading mysteries. Or historical texts, but I'm still slogging through The Spanish Labyrinth, so that review will have to wait.
Stefanie Pintoff's Secret of the White Rose is set in New York in 1908. According to my dad, it isn't the first book in her stories involving a Detective Ziele, who is frequently assisted by Alistair Sinclair, and Sinclair's theories on criminology. In this case, a judge involved in the trial of a notorious anarchist is found with his throat slit, his left hand placed on a Bible, and a white rose left nearby as well. Ziele reluctantly investigates, because he was brought in by Sinclair (a friend of the judge), which rubs the police commissioner the wrong way.
The book reads quickly and easily. Pintoff writes in such a way that even if you're new to the series (as I was) the connections between the characters are clearly set out. I didn't feel as though I was missing things because I lacked backstory. There were certain parts of the mystery that were never properly explained (such as why the killer switched weapons over the course of the murders, since this was originally put forth as a sign more than one person was involved), but on the whole I think Pintoff plays fair. We learn things as Ziele does, it's a question of whether the reader puts it together.
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