On so many levels, The Dead Cry Justice has been one of the most gripping and suspenseful mystery novels that I've yet read. And what I also valued so much from reading this novel are the perspectives and insights it gave me into life in Gilded Age New York society. Were it not for the interest I've acquired for this era in U.S. history from watching the current HBO series The Gilded Age, I would not have come to this book.

The story begins in Washington Square Park in May of 1890. Prudence MacKenzie, a young, affluent, and well-to-do woman whose late father had been a distinguished and much respected judge in New York, is enjoying an outing with her beloved Blossom, a big, imposing, playful, red gold dog. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, "{a] grimy, barefoot urchin in tattered shirt and ragged pants streaked across the grass, swooped within inches of the bench on which Prudence sat, and snatched up the package of sandwiches she hadn't yet opened." Prudence and Blossom managed to track down this boy to a basement in the University Building. There the boy has made a shelter and refuge for himself and a girl (who would prove to be his sister as the story unfolds) who is seriously ill and shows signs of having been brutalized.

With considerable effort, Prudence convinces the boy that she wants to help him and the girl and takes them to The Friends Refuge for the Sick Poor, a charity hospital run by the Quakers and staffed with volunteer workers and Dr. Charity Sloan, who has dedicated her life to caring for poor, abused children and women compelled to live on the fringes of society. Prudence, who has a keen interest in the law and works in an investigative law agency with Geoffrey Hunter, a former Pinkerton agent recovering from a gunshot injury that has forced him to rely on a cane for support, is weighing her choices as to whether or not to study law now that New York University's law school had at long last agreed to admit female students.

After ensuring both children are safe in The Refuge, Prudence returns the following day to find out that both of them had absconded from the building overnight, sight unseen. She is highly concerned about their welfare for the streets of New York can be extremely dangerous for children having to fend for themselves. Prudence suspects that both children are in danger and it is that concern that drives her on a quest to find them. This quest spurs the novel forward and exposes the reader to the grim poverty, violent crime, the lifestyles, wealth and power as represented by the Goulds and the Astors, the corruption of Tammany Hall and the local police, as well as views of the seedy side of life in a big city teeming with immigrants and the new technology as represented by the telephone and electricity that is gradually making inroads into the life and culture of New York (shortly before the advent of the subway and automobile).

Prudence, Geoffrey, and a variety of richly developed characters including the real life personages of Jacob Riis and the journalist Nellie Bly form part of a compelling drama that makes The Dead Cry Justice a real spellbinder. So much so, that I had to at times step away from the novel after reading a couple of chapters in quick succession because of the visceral reactions it triggered in me. 

For anyone in search of a captivating and gripping historical mystery novel, look no further. It will be time well spent.