There doesn't appear to have been any maintenance done on the house in years and it is literally falling apart. Mom is an alcoholic and her house looks like a hoarder's. It was not a good time for her sister to call and demand her help because their mother was hospitalized in bad shape.That takes Evie back to the neighborhood where she grew up and into the middle of a terrible mess. The topic is major fires in New York City, a natural for her since her beloved father had been a firefighter. She is a curator at the Five-Boroughs Historical Society and she is shepherding a historical artifact from the Empire State Building to feature in her first exhibition. In this wonderful novel each character is so real that the reader really cares about them, or hates them and enjoys seeing their plans go awry. That makes you an easy target for unscrupulous con artists, maybe even relatives who want what little you have. You are old, maybe neglected, live alone and possibly have physical and/or mental issues. To my mind, however, it is also a wake-up call to all of us about how easily in real life vulnerable old people, particularly women, are being taken advantage of all too often. There Was an Old Woman is labeled as a suspense novel, and I suppose that's technically true.
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