Monday #Review - A Promise of Ruin by @CuylerOverholt @Sourcebooks #Mystery #Historical Fiction

Series: Dr. Genevieve Summerford # 2
Format: E-Galley, 320 pages
Release Date: August 8, 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Mystery & Detective / Historical

To stop the trafficking ring plaguing her city, Dr. Genevieve Summerford must dive into New York’s underworld 

In early 1900s New York, the formidable crime syndicate known as the Black Hand has been terrorizing the city's Italian community with bombings and kidnappings. When a young Italian girl is found drowned and sexually defiled, Dr. Genevieve Summerford suspects the organization has expanded into forced prostitution, and she won't rest until the trafficking ring is brought to justice.

A Promise of Ruin, by author Cuyler Overholt, is the second installment in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford Mystery series. This is a series that is set in 1907 New York City. Dr. Genevieve is a specialist in neurology and mental therapy (psychotherapy). She is the first woman to practice in this advanced field, which we now take for granted. Unlike other psychiatrists, Genna specializes in healing the brain, not just the body. Genevieve is a young woman marked by her past.

She holds herself responsible for what happened to her younger brother, which in turn, drives her to be more passionate and more caring when it comes to others who have a variety of problems. After her romantic interest, Irishman Simon Finn, pulls a young woman's body from the river that shows obvious signs of abuse, Genna becomes aware of a group calling itself the Black Hand. The Black Hand is apparently into extortion, and preying on their fellow countrymen, which in this case, are Italians. But, are they also into sex trafficking and kidnapping? 

What makes Genna get involved is a young Italian girl named Rosa who claims her friend is missing. A friend who recently arrived from Italy with hopes of marrying the boy she loves, and may have got caught up in something sick and twisted. I will agree with one aspect of this story. Italians really did take care of their own, and we always have. Italians carry a deep, dark distrust of police officers and the legal process that is supposed to protect the innocents. While this was a good and sustained mystery with some surprises, the parts that actually intrigued me were the ones that focused on the Italian Community.

As an Italian-American, I have often harped about the inconsistencies when it comes to Italian immigrants coming to the US. As one who knows all too well how my descendants were treated as they came ashore at Ellis Island, this story pains me to the bone. I know about how my ancestors were quarantined until they could show they didn't carry diseases. I know that my ancestors weren't allowed to leave unless there was someone there, IE a sponsor, who would take responsibility for them. 

I know that my ancestors somehow made their way from lower Manhattan, where they lived in squalor, to Upstate New York where my mother was born and raised. A Promise of Ruin is a story about a group of people who lure young women from Italy with promises of marriage, and a new life, only to be sold into sex slavery. I don't think this issue has been raised to the level where anyone in this country can say that they are not OK with what is happening to these young women, girls, and yes, even boys for that matter. So, while Genna navigates her way through a decent mystery, the actual historical setting is what impressed me the most. For me, I could actually put myself into the story and feel as though the author did an impressive job creating a realistic setting and realistic characters like Pauline Goldstein, and Lucia Siavo. I am hopeful for another story in this series, but I feel rather satisfied at the way this story ends with Genna, Simon, and some new friends in a really good place.

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#Monday Review - A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt (Historical Fiction, Mystery)

Series: Unknown
Format: E-Galley, 448 pages
Release Date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark 
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Historical Fiction

In 1907 New York, a psychiatrist must prove her patient's innocence...or risk being implicated in a shocking murder.

As one of the first women practicing in an advanced new field of psychology, Dr. Genevieve Summerford is used to forging her own path. But when one of her patients is arrested for murder-a murder Genevieve fears she may have unwittingly provoked-she is forced to seek help from an old acquaintance.

Desperate to clear her patient's name and relieve her own guilty conscience, Genevieve finds herself breaking all the rules she's tried so hard to live by. In her search for answers, Genevieve uncovers an astonishing secret that, should she reveal it, could spell disaster for those she cares about most. But if she lets her discovery remain hidden, she will almost certainly condemn her patient to the electric chair.

A Deadly Affection is the first book in author Cuyler Overholt's Dr. Genevieve Summerford mysteries series. This is a story that was previously published in 2012, and is now being re-released by Sourcebooks. The story takes place in 1907 New York City where Dr. Summerford has become one of the only female practitioners to focus on healing injuries to the brain, not just the body. She knows about loss. She's worn a heavy crown of loss for years believing that she was responsible for her brothers death. With a local churches help, Genna pulls together 5 women who have all experienced painful losses and therefore exhibits physical symptoms caused by their losses. 

None more so than Elizabeth Miner. Eliza claims that her infant daughter Joy was taken away from her by Dr. Hauptfuhrer, the doctor who delivered the child. Genna encourages Eliza to confront the doctor who took the baby. After Eliza is found at the scene of the doctor's murder screaming for help, she is arrested for murder. Genna becomes embroiled in uncovering the facts behind the case, dealing with police who have already determined that Eliza is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the uber rich of NYC who are hiding an outrageous secret. 

Genna finds herself matching wits not only with her own family, but Detective Maloney who is apparently above being bribed, and Genna's old flame Simon Shaw. Genevieve is a character who is not just going to let things go while she has even a breath of air left in her body. She see's an area of need in women who have been dumped out of society because of loss and the lingering affects of loss, and charges ahead in a male dominated field to give the best possible treatment with the most caring and compassion ways possible. She's been told that, "the female brain is too small for great intellect but large enough for conceit." That made her work even harder to graduate at the top of her class.  

A Deadly Affection also focuses on two different ailments which in 100 years later, have no cure. Huntington's Disease and

Dissociation Identity Disorder (DID) which was previously labeled as Multiple Personality Disorder. For those history buffs out there like me, 1907 was during what's called the Progressive Era which lead to progressivism. It was bookmarked between the Gilded Age, and World War I. It was a time of urbanization, immigration, and industrialization that transformed New York city's economy.

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