A review by kategci
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

3.0

I really like historical fiction and I really like narrative nonfiction and I felt that this book fell a little short. Ariel Lawhon writes very well and I have 2 other titles of hers that I will read, but this New York story did not grab this New York girl. I read afterwards about Judge Crater's disappearance and I know that around the Great Depression, New York City was a very corrupt place. While this story is a plausible explanation for the mystery, it was all tied up a little too neatly. The only person who liked the Judge seemed to be his wife, so I was not really invested in figuring out where he went. Lawhon was unable to make him the least bit likable, so I felt like everyone was better off without him, even his wife. It took her a while to figure that out, but apparently, she went on to a long happy marriage to someone else.