Review: City of Liars and Thieves

City of Liars and Thieves

by Eve Karlin

Publisher: Alibi

Pages: 266

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  It is high time to tell the truth. Time for justice. . . . How she was murdered and why she haunts me. It is not only Elma’s story, it’s mine.
 
On the bustling docks of the Hudson River, Catherine Ring waits with her husband and children for the ship carrying her cousin, Elma Sands. Their Greenwich Street boardinghouse becomes a haven for Elma, who has at last escaped the stifling confines of her small hometown and the shameful circumstances of her birth. But in the summer of 1799, Manhattan remains a teeming cesspool of stagnant swamps and polluted rivers. The city is desperate for clean water as fires wreak devastation and the death toll from yellow fever surges.
 
Political tensions are rising, too. It’s an election year, and Alexander Hamilton is hungry for power. So is his rival, Aaron Burr, who has announced the formation of the Manhattan Water Company. But their private struggle becomes very public when the body of Elma Sands is found at the bottom of a city well built by Burr’s company.
 
Resolved to see justice done, Catherine becomes both witness and avenger. She soon finds, however, that the shocking truth behind this trial has nothing to do with guilt or innocence.


Kritters Thoughts:   A historical fiction perfectly combines some truth and some fiction.  In New York in 1799, the young country of America was still trying to find its way in the political sense and money and politics were starting to intermingle.  At the same time a young woman moves into her cousin's home to escape the ridicule of her hometown and start new and fresh.  She (Elma) gets mixed up with the politics and money of New York and it doesn't end well.

I loved reading about the beginnings of politics and money and how that not only affects the politicians but citizens also.  To see the beginnings of wheeling and dealing was great and to even see how the Electoral College began and could be influenced was so entertaining.  I love when I learn something in a fiction book, but I don't even know it because the plot line is still enjoyable.  

My only disappointment was that I thought it was advertised that this book was centered around the dueling of Burr and Hamilton and I felt like it wasn't really there.  They were in the book, but I thought the dueling wasn't really there.  If I hadn't felt like it was going to be in it, I wouldn't have been so disappointed.

If you are new or have been a historical fiction fan for awhile, this is one that I definitely recommend, but I would warn that going in, you aren't getting as much Burr and Hamilton as maybe you wish you would!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 1 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.