Even if the identity of the murderer becomes evident halfway through A Curtain Falls, Stefanie Pintoff still leaves plenty of surprises for her readers in this follow-up to In the Shadow of Gotham in her early-20th century mystery series featuring police detective Simon Ziele.Formerly a detective in New York City, Ziele now works in a small town outside the big city. His former NYC partner Declan Mulvaney, now a captain, invites him back to help solve a perplexing case in which actresses are being killed, their bodies displayed in theatrical poses. Then Mulvaney ignores his friend’s advice and decides the first promising suspect must be guilty. Ziele, unconvinced, seeks help of his own in the person of a professor named Alistair Sinclair, whom readers of Pintoff’s first novel will remember. Sinclair offers insights into the workings of the criminal mind, but Ziele is just as interested in seeing Sinclair’s daughter-in-law again. Isabella, a pretty widow of a higher social class than Ziele, makes her own contribution to the investigation.
That investigation never fails to hold ones’s interest. The characters, plot twists and asides about New York City history all entertain. So what if we know who the killer is by page 200?
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