Jennifer Donnelly's Murder Mystery These Shallow Graves

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Recommended: Role of women during the 19th century

Jennifer Donnelly’s murder mystery These Shallow Graves is an engaging historical thriller set in New York City in the 1890’s that makes the reader feel like they are being transported back in time. Jennifer Donnelly did a marvelous job capturing the essence of this time period from the character’s language to society’s expectations of young women. The story follows a seventeen year old girl named Jo Montfort who is rich, beautiful, and waiting to be married of to a wealthy man. She lives what appears to be the perfect life, attending a prestigious all girls’ boarding school. What many people do not realize is that Jo is not content with her life. She dreams of being a famous reporter but in this time as a female that is a very big ambition. This type of career is deemed extremely …show more content…

To do so Jo teams up with a young, handsome, male reporter named Eddie Gallagher whom she begins to fall in love with. They put themselves in incredibly dangerous and risky situations and their unique adventures and love story make for a remarkable page-turner that has the reader always on the edge of their seat. Throughout the novel These Shallow Graves there are so many thrilling moments. This exciting and suspenseful mystery left me always questioning who I should trust and who I should suspect to be the murderer, anyone could end up being an evil character with a separate agenda. Jennifer Donnelly created such a stunning and epic romance between Jo and Eddie, The buildup and development of their relationship was executed so flawlessly yet so realistically because the characters slowly got to know one another. They were actually put in a situation where their relationship was not something that could be easily attained or attained at all which added so much tension to the novel and their relationship. While reading I saw Jo and Eddie’s deep care for each other but unfortunately there were so many things keeping them apart, like Jo’s

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