Book Review for The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig

 

The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig

Published:  March 4, 2025 by William Morrow

Genre:  Historical Fiction, True Crime

Taken from Goodreads:  Based on the true story of a famous trial, this novel is Law and 1800, as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr investigate the shocking murder of a young woman who everyone—and no one—seemed to know.

At the start of a new century, a shocking murder transfixes Manhattan, forcing bitter rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to work together to save a man from the gallows. 

Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house—and doesn’t come home. Has she eloped? Run away? No one knows—until her body appears in the Manhattan Well.

Her family insists they know who killed her. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. 

But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor….

Aaron Burr’s legal practice can’t finance both his expensive tastes and his ambition to win the 1800 New York elections. To defend Levi Weeks is a double a hefty fee plus a chance to grab headlines.

Alexander Hamilton has his own political aspirations; he isn’t going to let Burr monopolize the public’s attention. If Burr is defending Levi Weeks, then Hamilton will too. As the trial and the election draw near, Burr and Hamilton race against time to save a man’s life—and destroy each other.

Part murder mystery, part thriller, part true crime, The Girl From Greenwich Street revisits a dark corner of history—with a surprising twist ending that reveals the true story of the woman at the center of the tale.

My Thoughts:  The story of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is well known but this part of their history was not known to me.   Hamilton and Burr had to work together but the difference in their styles was evident.  

I enjoyed the history in this book and how true to the time the author stayed.   The story is a slow read.   There were parts that were repetitive but that may be just how things were in the time.   The trial of Levi Weeks appeared chaotic that may have been typical for that time.  

The history of the story pulled me in but it was a book that I could put down and walk away from without any urgency to pick it back up.  

Thank you William Morrow for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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Meet Lauren Willig(taken from her website):  Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five works of historical fiction, including Band of Sisters, The Summer Country, The English Wife, the RITA Award-winning Pink Carnation series, and five novels co-written with Beatriz Williams and Karen White. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages, picked for Book of the Month Club, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best, and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and vast quantities of coffee.