Rating: 
Summary: Very good historical suspense fiction
Review: The nitpicker who said "it all goes downhill from there" is just totally wrong. Mr Crabbe has done an excellent job of historical research and his character-development is outstanding. This IS a first novel, and he made mistakes, but the clanger of birds sitting could have been cleaned up by a copy-editor simply deleting the first "Sitting" -- which is the job of the copy-editor. The bridge was made to seem the latest technological marvel, the trials of being a cop in a crooked New York City in the 1880's seemed real, the sufferings of the poor were genuine. Mr Crabbe, unlike a lot of people writing hardware into their story took the time to learn about firearms, he described them without going into boring detail, and he got them right. Some things he perhaps -- almost surely -- got wrong, were that one would wait a long time for the service records of Confederate soldiers to come from the United States War Department, since they didn't hold those records, and I'm fairly sure, as one who took a steamer from Washington DC down to Norfolk, Virginia several times more than a half-century ago, that the voyage from New York to Richmond would take more than an overnight. Contemporary terms definitely alien to the 1880's include "skosh," "Get out of Dodge," and a couple I don't remember, but perhaps the author was merely trying to use terms modern readers would understand. These are minor problems that we hope Mr Crabbe won't duplicate in his next novel. Perhaps the nitpicker who thought the birds should sit only once has never tried to write a novel. It's very difficult. Anyone can write a grammatical sentence with a little effort, but stringing together a number of occurrences, murder, attempted murder, sabotage, construction details, lives of people in a different century, and making an interesting story come alive is a great deal more difficult than writing sentences.
Rating: 
Summary: A Jerky Ride and Not Worth It
Review: The premise of this book, set in 1883 New York, is that a group of disgruntled former Confederate soldiers have come to work on the Brooklyn Bridge, two decades after the close of the civil war. This ragtag bunch plans to sabotage the bridge by blowing it up on May 31, 1882 at 4:00 pm - the day it opens and the time it will be most loaded with sightseers. One slightly corrupt policeman, in the crush of a corrupt police force, races to follow the clues from a seemingly random corpse outside a tavern to, finally, the Confederates before they blow the bridge.I got through this book only because I couldn't believe that it wasn't going to get better. Normally, I give any book at least 50 pages (so many books, so little time). Call me an optimist as I waded through 436 pages of poor dialogue, characters so thin as to be invisible and a jerky style rather like riding in an old stick-shift truck with no shocks and a novice driver. Why, you ask? Because the book came highly recommended by someone who normally mirrors my taste for historicals, because others have read the book and found it wonderful. Call me newly cautious about others' recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: A Jerky Ride and Not Worth It
Review: The premise of this book, set in 1883 New York, is that a group of disgruntled former Confederate soldiers have come to work on the Brooklyn Bridge, two decades after the close of the civil war. This ragtag bunch plans to sabotage the bridge by blowing it up on May 31, 1882 at 4:00 pm - the day it opens and the time it will be most loaded with sightseers. One slightly corrupt policeman, in the crush of a corrupt police force, races to follow the clues from a seemingly random corpse outside a tavern to, finally, the Confederates before they blow the bridge. I got through this book only because I couldn't believe that it wasn't going to get better. Normally, I give any book at least 50 pages (so many books, so little time). Call me an optimist as I waded through 436 pages of poor dialogue, characters so thin as to be invisible and a jerky style rather like riding in an old stick-shift truck with no shocks and a novice driver. Why, you ask? Because the book came highly recommended by someone who normally mirrors my taste for historicals, because others have read the book and found it wonderful. Call me newly cautious about others' recommendations.
Rating: 
Summary: A History Mystery!
Review: This book is a winner for anyone who has ever walked, biked, or driven across the Brooklyn Bridge and marveled at its grandeur. The author interweaves a page-turning mystery story with gripping details of the actual construction of that glorious bridge. He is obviously knowledgeable enough about the bridge to have written the story of its design and construction alone, but the added excitement of his suspense-filled mystery makes this a great read. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: This book will capture you!
Review: This book was absolutely amazing!! The story transports you to another time and place. The historicity of the book has already been testified to by the other reviewers, so I'll keep my comments limited to the story itself - the words evoke some of the stongest mental pictures I've ever encountered. You can feel yourself walking thought the streets of 19th century New York. You can seel it, smell it and hear it. You are there! This is a truly great piece of historical fiction. I didn't want this book to end. I wanted to keep reading!! I truly enjoyed Mr. Crabbe's writing, and I anxiously await his future works.
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