Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the finest book I have read in some time. Ms. Kang is a physician who studied and trained in New York City and she sets her story there in 1918 when two historical events were occurring simultaneously: WWI, the so-called Great War "to end all wars", and the terrifying Spanish Influenza outbreak in NYC and other American cities and towns, both of which caused deaths numbering in the thousands. Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, the oldest public hospital in the US and still one of its greatest, is also a "character" at a time before it became known (inaccurately) only as a place of treatment for the mentally ill. Through her meticulous descriptions of people, houses, clothes, attitudes, manners and events and her skillful dialog the author brings to life people and a time almost exactly 100 years ago. I quickly felt as if I were there, completely immersed in that world. Each character is richly drawn and real. She shows the worlds and lives of the rich, the formerly rich, as well as those of the poor. We also learn how the impending draft of young men of all stations into the War hung like a pall over their heads. Here at home forensic medicine was in its infancy and physicians were helpless against the rapidly-spreading and relentless influenza outbreak. What few drugs they had at their disposal at the time couldn't arrest the disease and it killed so very fast - strangely, mainly the young more than the old. (In a personal note an ancestor of mine, my late father's brother, died from the flu in 1918 as a young boy.) In the field of medicine, 100 years ago might as well have been the Dark Ages in comparison to today. Indeed, the Spanish Influenza pandemic is reminiscent of the Black Plague that destroyed 2/3 of the population of Europe hundreds of years ago. This is however not just a historical but first and foremost a mystery novel. There are several murders of persons close to some young friends, mainly 18 year-olds, and they are driven to try to solve them partly through forensic investigation and partly through deduction, but this is no Nancy Drew "let's go solve a mystery" book. These are intelligent young men and women from "both sides of the tracks". In fact one female and one male are budding scientist/physicians and in the case of the young woman she is in a world where women didn't yet have the vote, lived lives controlled by males and had to fight to have a career. Their investigation is made up as they go along but is none the less fascinating because although they are amateurs two of them posses a relevant knowledge of chemistry - the deaths were caused by poisoning - and one has access to the morgue, plus they have a personal stake in solving these crimes. I suspect very few readers will deduce the murderer and their motive before the stunning end. I certainly didn't! Most of all I was impressed with Ms. Kang's simple and economical yet beautiful, smooth and evocative prose. There were a number of sentences so lyrically expressed and often containing a profound idea that I had to stop and reread them for their sheer beauty of expression. Her dialog is natural and suited to the era. Her exposition is seamless and naturally conveyed. I want to read more novels by this author and I hope that she will pick up the threads at the end of the story and write a sequel. As a native New Yorker I love historical novels set in earlier NYC and as a female I want to read about the strong women who went before me and sowed the seeds that flowered into a garden where I as a female was able to enjoy a free and productive life of my choice without having to fight quite as hard as they did against society's stifling conventions to accomplish what I wanted as a person and as a woman. I cannot recommend this book more highly to readers with any of the varying interests I have stated above.