Murder on Wall Street by Victoria Thompson ****

When your protagonist is a midwife, as in Murder on Wall Street by Victoria Thompson, everyone is pregnant. Jocelyn Robinson was raped by Hayden Norcross. When Hayden is murdered, Jocelyn’s reformed, ex-gangster, husband Jack fears he will be accused of the crime. He hires midwife-detective Sarah Malloy to find the real culprit. Hayden also raped and abused his wife, Violet Andriessen, so she is also a suspect. The investigation goes to Chinatown where Irish Cora Lee is married to a successful Chinese man and is also pregnant. This turn-of-the-19^th-century mystery explores prejudice, women’s rights, and opium use.

The women confront the difficulty of reporting rape and spousal abuse—society blames the victim for rape and is not concerned with all-too-common spousal abuse.

The Chinese Exclusion Act does not allow the immigration of Chinese women. When a Chinese prostitute is suggested as Hayden’s murderer, Sarah knows this is wrong because there are so few Chinese women that ALL are known and married to rich men. 

The cops are corrupt and only solve crimes where someone offers a reward to make it worth their time. There is conflict between Catholics (Irish and Italians) and Protestants (Germans).

By the end, Hayden is found to be so evil, you feel sorry for the murderer.

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