Excellent as usual, second only to City of God in the writing and character development. I'm sad to have reached the last book in the series, and will wait for the next one to come out. ( )

What Edward Rutherfurd did in one fat novel — tell the history of New York City through fiction (“New York,” 2009) — Beverly Swerling did in four fat novels. Her death in 2018 prevented her from continuing that history into the 20th century, assuming that was ever her intent.

Following “City of Dreams,” “City of Glory” and “City of God,” her 2011 novel “City of Promise” covers the period from the end of the Civil War to the mid-1880s, or the time when the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction. This was the Gilded Age, when those who made fortunes in business thanks to the war enhanced those fortunes, when immigrants flooded into the city and when, to accommodate the growing population and growing business, developers started building up as well as out.

The story centers on one of these businessmen, Joshua Turner, who came out of the war with a wooden leg that in no way slowed his ambition. His bright idea is to build multi-story apartment buildings for the middle class. His even brighter idea is to marry Mollie Brannigan, a sharp-as-a-tack Irish woman who, because she is over 20 (and still a virgin despite growing up in her aunt's brothel), has resigned herself to spinsterhood. She meets Joshua while working at Macy's.

Yet this is also the period when the Boss Tweed political machine is in power and when criminal gangs are exercising power of their own. Then there is a rival businessman who made life miserable for Joshua when he was a Confederate prisoner of war and is now willing to do anything, including kidnapping or killing Mollie, to claim Joshua's success as his own.

Those in Joshua's corner include a resourceful dwarf who knows how to make steel, Mollie's aunt whose business has provided her with many valuable contacts in the business world, and a pawnbroker who seems to know everything going on in New York but whose true loyalty remains in doubt until the end.

Swerling makes New York history an important part of her story while at the same time keeping it in the background, so readers may not even realize they are learning anything. ( )

Rollicking Fun and Intrigue on the Streets of Old New York

City of Promise, fourth installment in Beverly Swerling’s acclaimed New York City saga, spans the time from the Civil War to the Gilded Age of the 1880s. The stories of the Turner and Devrey families continue. The book brims over with the city’s explosive expansion, gripping characters and a plot that highlights 19th century social mores. The book cover features fireworks over the newly erected Brooklyn Bridge, but the real sparklers are within its pages.

We have followed Beverly Swerling’s characters and their descendants through two centuries since the New York City saga began in City of Dreams. In this latest installment, Josh and Mollie Turner negotiate the ups and downs of their marriage almost as well as their dream to build “French flats,” leased one-floor apartments stacked into a high rise well north of the city. We sense a collision course will ensue with the project but seeing how it unfolds is revelatory. Along the way we bump into arsonists, brothel owners, real estate tycoons, blackmailers, kidnappers and spies.

The real star of City of Promise is New York itself. Swerling’s ability to cram period detail into an absorbing plot makes you feel you’re walking the city streets along with the characters. Grand mansions spread northward, subways threaten to run underground, and apartment buildings stretch skyward. Ride a steam-driven Otis elevator. Attend the opening of the Metropolitan Opera. Stay on top of events with the New York Times, an upscale newspaper. Learn about Edison’s improvements to the Bell telephone, steel-girded apartment buildings and a fashion revelation called the maternity dress.

Beverly Swerling loves New York, evidenced by her five superbly researched novels about its history. Her next novel (coming from Viking in 2013) is set in London in both Tudor and contemporary times. Several of her early books, originally published as written by Beverly Byrne and Beverly S. Martin, will soon be available as eBooks.

Swerling expertly creates fascinating characters that inform us of history. Her knowledge of New York City’s history and geography illuminates and concretizes her subject. City of Promise is so absorbing and suspenseful that when the last page is turned, the reader is unaware that he had a history lesson to top that of a college classroom.

No worries if you haven’t read the other books in the series, as the last one stands on its own. How refreshing to see authors take a different tack than in previous books. Swerling has upped her game in City of Promise. Instead of relying on surgical procedures and salacious scenes, she turns her beloved Big Apple into a hero. Intrigue and entertainment are its close friends to the last page. In this reviewer’s mind, it is the best book of the series.

Simon and Schuster graciously provided the review copy. The opinions expressed are unbiased and entirely those of the reviewer.

Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont ( )

Finished Read in 2013