Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation

Today’s review is on Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca. It is 432 pages long including notes and is published by St. Martin’s Press. The cover is dark with the silhouette of a woman in the center. The intended reader is someone who likes historical narratives, true crime, and forgotten history. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and descriptions of violence. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation’s greatest crime fighters during an era when women weren’t involved with murder investigations. After agreeing to take the sensational Cruger case, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man — in a desperate race against time.
Grace's motto "Justice for those of limited means" led her to strange cases all over the world. From defending an innocent giant on death row to investigating an island in Arkansas with a terrible secret; from the warring halls of Congress to a crumbling medieval tower in Italy, Grace solved crimes in-between shopping at Bergdorf Goodman and being marked for death by the sinister Black Hand. Grace was appointed as the first woman U.S. district attorney in history and the first female consulting detective to the NYPD. Despite her many successes in social justice, at the height of her powers Grace began to see chilling connections in the cases she solved, leading to a final showdown with her most fearsome adversary of all.
This is the first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. This poignant story reveals important corollaries between missing girls, the role of the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The great mystery of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes —and its haunting twist ending—is how one woman could become so famous only to disappear completely.

Review- This is a fascinating tale of lady lawyer and a missing young woman. The story is told in two ways with one chapter at the start of the book following the missing young woman and her family then we switch to Mrs. Humiston as she earns her reputation. Mrs. Humiston was one of the first women lawyers to open a practice and she specialized in the poor and immigrant cases. She very quickly became known as someone who cared about the law and helping others to protected by it. When the NYPD did not get any clues or even take the case of Ruth Cruger seriously at all her father went to Mrs. Humiston. It is very detailed about Mrs. Humiston career and her cases without lingering too much on the more unsavory details of any particular case. But we also get to see her fall when she gets involved in something that is untrue and she losses her trusted reputation. I did enjoy this book with all the information and I liked learning about a great woman who did good work for the poor and others that no one else willing to help.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.