The Dutton Girl: A John Nolan Detective Novel

Freeman’s plodding first novel and series launch opens with the kidnapping in December, 1914, of 19-year-old Sarah Dutton, the daughter of real estate developer Arthur Gates, from her Manhattan apartment. Two days later, Gates receives a ransom demand of $50,000 for Sarah’s safe return. John Nolan, a poor 27-year-old Irish immigrant who works for his cousin’s detective agency in New York, gets assigned to the case. The inexperienced but stubborn Nolan soon realizes that various members of Sarah’s wealthy family, including her brother, sister, and father, had something to gain from her disappearance. That all these suspects must be questioned circumspectly and gently slows the pace. A month passes with little result. Meanwhile, Nolan exchanges letters with Sheenagh, a woman he left back in Ireland and plans to marry, and he receives notes from a secret criminal society known as the Black Hand warning him to back off from the investigation. Freeman does a better job of depicting the historical setting than of developing the mystery plot.[em] (June) [/em]