Review: Murder in New York - C.J. Baty - Paranormal Romance Guild

Title: Murder in New York
Series: The Pinkerton Man Series
Author: C.J. Baty
Genre: M/M Historical/Mystery/Romance
Release Date: May 24, 2018

Coming back to New York to see her ailing father, Lizzie Ferguson did not expect to find him healthy and newly married to a much younger woman. She, also, didn’t expect to connect with an old lover and childhood friend or be accused of killing her father. But, life has a way of knocking you to your knees when you least expect it.

Stiles Long had always regretted that the killer, from his first case as a Pinkerton Agent, had got away. Now, in New York it was happening again. The Hotel Astor Bar was a meeting place for men who enjoyed the company of men. And, some of them were being brutally murdered. When one of the suspects from the original case appears at the hotel, Stiles is torn between his desire to stop a killer and kiss the man senseless.

Two different cases, but some of the faces overlap from one to the other. Stiles and Lizzie are in a race to discover who the killers are before another body gets added to the count.

Reviewed by: Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team

I thought I loved book one and two but this book was so amazing that I finished it in a few hours. I couldn’t put it down until all questions were answered and there were quite a few questions.

Although the author does touch on the first two books I would highly recommend reading this series from the beginning so that you have the full knowledge of everything and everyone and you won’t be sorry.

Stiles is accompanying Lizzie to New York after she received a letter stating that her father was very ill but it turns out that was just another of her father’s ruses in order to get his daughter back home and married to a man he had already chosen for her. He was also married to a woman half his age and one he only knew for three months prior to marrying her. Lizzie is not one to just take her father’s demands sitting down in fact she storms out of his home threatening to never return because if she did return she would kill him. Even his threat of disinheriting her did not sway her.

Before leaving New York and heading back to St. Louis they are asked by another Pinkington agent to assist in a case, young gay men are being killed, murdered very much like all the male prostitutes in Stiles’ first case, a case that was never solved. Has the murderer resurfaced and can Stiles finally close a case that has never left his mind. Unlike the first two books this one has two murder cases and one of them is Lizzie’s father who was found shot and who the police believe may have been committed by his own daughter.

Although there are two very different murder cases some of the characters overlap. The dead men all met at the Hotel Astor bar and were found brutally beaten leading to the belief that this is more than just men having sex with men but something that is much more evil. Stiles feels certain that the man Lizzie’s dad picked as her husband is someone he knew but he can’t put his finger on who he is, he does feel that the man reeks of evil and is always at the Hotel Astor bar picking up unsuspecting boys.

Another man from Stiles’ past and one of the suspects in his first murder case, Michael O’Leary, a man he had sex with and a man who even now rings all his bells shows up. Could Michael be the killer? Lizzie also reunites with a friend and past lover, Sarah Wallen only Sarah is living in squalor with a little boy and selling her body for money. Thrown out by her father after he caught Lizzie and her together she is now at the end of her rope and very ill. So many story lines, so many suspects, so many victims and a mystery I couldn’t wait to see solved.

There is explicit M/M sex, violence and more than one guilty party. This book never had a boring moment and there were quite a few surprises. The characters were amazing and once again I enjoyed visiting the past, a past where being gay was illegal and where long term relationships were out of the question.