Customer Reviews

Under the Manhattan Bridge: An Anita Servi Mystery (Anita Servi Mysteries)

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While Marcuse is a fairly decent writer, this story is shallow and underdeveloped -- no wonder, considering the book is a slim 288 pages. The mystery plot in itself all right, but all the characters that populate it are all stereotypes -- e.g., holier than thou Jews; overly friendly Witnesses; people who moved to New York from other states; and gay, pretentious artists -- and we never really find out out people's motivations for what they're doing, particularly when they seem to be violating their own religions' dictates. This book reads like it was written by someone who's seen a documentary about life in Brooklyn rather than someone who's lived it.

Anita Servi was working one day when she found a corpse of a teenager in a vacume press. Helen, an aquaintance of Anita, recognized the boy murdered as her grandson, Shimon Edelman. Helen was later murdered when a robbery went bad in search for Shimon's stash of the drug, Ectasy. When Grant one of Anita's friends tied her up, he admitted to putting Shimon in the vacume press and cutting it on to suck the air out of his lungs and body. He was later caught escaping from the hostage scene. I reccomend this book to teenagers to adults who are fit to solve a great Anita Servi Mystery.

Anita Servi found most of the clues leading to who killed or was involved in the murders of Helen Baum and Shimon Edelman. She figured out part of the reason of Shimon's death was because he was a drug addict from a few people who had bought drugs from him. Also Anita found out that all the keys to her work building are the same and can open any of the doors, which meant that any worker in the building had access to the vacume press; where Anita found Shimon. She also figured out that one of her friends, Grant Farrell, was one of the people who last saw Shimon before he died; for he had been making and selling drugs with him.

All of Anita's friends really trusted her with knowing the personal events that go on in their lives. An artist, Carlos, that lived across the street told her that he had been to a place where they were selling and making drugs and he remembered seeing Shimon. Also Helen Baum confessed to Anita before she died, that Shimon had sold her some Ectasy and was storing it in her home. Leah Swersky, a friend of Richard Linden, told Anita that Richard was accidently involved with the murder of Shimon Edelman.

This novel takes place in modern day New York like we are actually there in person seeing all the sights. Mainly everyone in this book to the subways and trains, just like people still do now instead of driving in the traffic. A lot of people illegally made and sold drugs in secret places in New York, still like that do today except there are only less illegal drug makers. This novel also mentioned that different religions had there own designated places to live, like the Jewish and Orthodox people. Today many say some people still live like it was long ago.

This book is a mystery fit for masterminds to solve as they read it with many twists and turns about. It takes place in modern day New York, just like in reality. Many of Anita's friends were involved with the murders, which made it easier for them to spill their guilt to her. Anita puts herself through a lot trouble to find more clues to who killed Shimon Edelman and Helen Baum, like talking to stranger and asking aroung the neighborhoods.
T.Brown

Irene Marcuse's best work yet. Draws you in during the first chapter and keeps you engaged with snapshots of the wonderful cultural mix that is New York! The author transitions each chapter well and keeps the reader on top of the story -- giving asides that reflect the personality of the social worker sleuth Anita Servi. Ms. Marcuse depicts a realistic view of life in DUMBO -- the drugs, the ethnic groups intermingling, the artists claiming their spaces -- against the background of deaths that lead to transformations. I highly recommend this book to those wanting to know more about this fascinating area.