Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Double Header

I don't usually review two books by the same author, but I was so impressed by the storylines in these I had to add both. Brooklyn Bones and Brooklyn Graves are two well-crafted, beautifully drawn stories with a mystery woven throughout. The books written by Triss Stein feature Erica Donato, a PhD candidate, historian and mother of a 15-year-old daughter.

While renovating her Brooklyn home, a skeleton of a young girl is discovered behind the wall. The skeleton is dressed in a tied-dyed shirt, has a teddy bear and The Doors albums surrounding her, plus a brick that says RIP 9/16/72. Erica tries to unravel what happened in her home while she is completing her historical research on her neighborhood.

Her journey takes her to the halls of wealth and power in New York and to a long hidden secret that
threatens her life and her daughter's.

In Brooklyn Graves Erica is roped into assisting a visiting scholar who fancies himself the foremost expert on Tiffany glass. Their journey leads them to a famous Brooklyn cemetery known for its Tiffany glass mausoleums. Murder, stolen windows and a tiny connection to the past leads Erica to a surprising solution.

These books are beautifully written and the plots reveal themselves in carefully crafted words. The historical research is fascinating and adds so much depth and flavor to the books.

I recommend them and I look forward to the next in the series.

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