Second Street Station: A Mary Handley Mystery

Set in late 19th-century Brooklyn, TV writer Levy’s bland first novel launches a series starring Mary Handley, a bright young woman who wants more out of life than the usual job in a sweatshop followed by marriage and children. Everyone, including her mother, disparages her ambitions. Then the suspicious death of bookkeeper Charles Goodrich, who once worked for Thomas Edison, gives her a chance to use her brains. Mary is soon interviewing such notables as Edison, financier J.P. Morgan, and scientist Nikola Tesla. Although her knowledge of murder and corpses is entirely academic, she runs rings around the clodhopper police, whose ranks include her own unsupportive brother. Levy does a good job presenting the period background, but all the characters are tissue-paper thin. From the beginning, there’s never any doubt that Mary will succeed, nor is there any good reason to care whether she does. Agent: Paul Fedorko, N.S. Bienstock. (June)