Publisher's Weekly Review
Crabbe debuts with a cunningly imagined historical fiction set in New York City in 1883. The richly atmospheric thriller tells the story of a scheme by a group of former Confederate soldiers to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, which is under construction. The saboteurs, led by former Civil War Capt. Thaddeus Sangree, view the bridge as a symbol of the North's moral corruption and misguided desire for unity. Sangree's own secret motivation is personal: his brother, Franklin, was killed at Gettysburg, and Sangree holds former Union Col. Washington Roebling responsible for his brother's death. Roebling's father designed the Brooklyn Bridge and the younger Roebling is its chief engineer. The scheme has been meticulously planned for years, with saboteurs obtaining jobs working on the bridge so they can understand its weak points. However, when they kill a bridge mason who has caught on to their plan, the murder attracts the attention of bulldog police detective Tom Braddock. Braddock sniffs out the plot through a combination of dogged pursuit, investigative cunning and the brute force that was common practice in 19th-century law enforcement. The action covers a wide spectrum of 1880s New York life, drawing upon a large cast of believable characters, but it centers on the city's disease-infested tenements. Crabbe, who worked in the advertising industry for 20 years, falters occasionally in tone, vacillating between gritty period drama and modern, too clever dialogue. However, he has effectively re-created a time when America was attempting to heal old wounds while steadying itself for a great industrial thrust forward. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Adman Crabbe wrote his debut novel mostly while commuting on the Staten Island ferry (or so were told)a method that has much to recommend it in this brawny, lavishly detailed detective saga about a Confederate plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge when it first opens for business in 1883. Honest Tom Braddock is the burly heart of the story, as the Irish-American cop and veteran of the bloody days at Gettysburg whose first clue that something is amiss in a routine murder investigation comes when the dead man proves to have a tiny key in his stomach. The man, a worker on the nearly completed bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, was also a widower who left behind a young son, a boy whom Braddock comes to care about as the investigation proceeds. But the sympathetic detective has a major conflict in his life that impedes his progress: he's on the take in a city-wide protection scheme run by his precinct captain, a creep whom Braddock is increasingly unwilling to work for. His reluctance imperils his life as well as a good chunk of his supplementary income, and when he starts piecing together the puzzle left by the corpse, there's danger from that quarter as well; he closes in on the plotters, who've had their eyes on him from the beginningand a lot of practice in eliminating those who stumble on their secret. The Confederate mastermind, Captain Sangree, has nursed a grudge against Washington Roebling, the bridge's builder, ever since they came together at Gettysburg, where Sangree witnessed the death of his courageous younger brother. Although some among his band, having sweated and strained for 13 years in helping construct it, are now loathe to blow it up, they follow orders, and Braddock is in the race of his life without fully knowing why. Though some stretches of incredibility crop up as this extensive plot unfolds, superb detail and abundant action make this a solid page-turner.
Library Journal Review
To a small group of Confederate veterans, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge is symbolic of everything they lost in the Civil WarDtheir rights, dreams, and way of life. Led by their fanatical captain, this vengeful group plans to destroy the bridge in the spring of 1883. The discovery of a body behind a tavern near the bridge sets Detective Tom Braddock on an investigation, leading him to their plot. Braddock is not your average corrupt police officer. Oh, he knows how to play the dirty game of advancement that runs rampant in the force, but he yearns for a more ethical life. His simultaneous battles to get out of the racket and track down the conspirators nearly cost him his life. First novelist Crabbe is a thoughtful writer who provides wonderful detail, and his suspenseful, well-researched historical will have Caleb Carr fans asking for more. Comparisons to The Alienist are well earned. Strongly recommended for all public libraries.DKaren T. Bilton, Cedar Mill Community Lib., Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
