Alice started the investigation by ordering her Secret Service bodyguard, St. Clare, to take her here and there to meet with people of interest. Alice was only 17 and the author seems to feel we need to be reminded of this very often. St. Clare was the older man she had a crush on, but was considered too old for her. Easy read and I'll read the next in the series to see what trouble she find.
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President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly once said, "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both" in regards to his daughter and history has painted her as a bit rebellious and rambunctious. Author R.J. Koreto also paints her as curious in the mystery, <em>Alice and the Assassin</em>.

It is 1902 and Teddy Roosevelt is President of the United States. Teddy assigns Joseph St. Clair - a veteran of the Secret Service and former Rough Rider - the task of watching over Alice, the President's daughter. She smokes cigarettes, bets on horse races, chews bubble gum, and generally challenges her guard at every turn. She also develops a real school-girl crush on the rough, older St. Clair.

St. Clair doesn't do much here except that we see Alice through his eyes. He doesn't try very hard to stop her from whatever she gets in to, but instead just tries to make sure she is safe - whatever she is doing. That's harder than it sounds, however, since Alice gets the idea to investigate the assassination of President William McKinley. In part, she's hoping to protect her father whom she believes could meet the same fate if the true culprits aren't uncovered. In part, it's something to do. St. Clair helps open a few doors for the young woman and protects her from physical danger.

Koreto has taken an interesting historical figure and written a complicated mystery. The plot intrigue, complete with foreign powers trying to create some influence in the United States reads an awful lot like some of the political goings-on happening in the U.S. today, which adds to the intrigue.

But despite the historical research and the fascinating characters, the book moves along at a snail's pace. We expect that a book in which this young, vibrant woman at the turn of the century who bucks the trend at every turn, would move along quickly - at her pace. But because the book is told from the point of view of the older, more careful St. Clair, we get it at his pace - careful, watchful. It's a frustrating way to read ... wanting to go faster than the author.

I'll be interested in the next volume, but if the pace continues slowly and methodically, it will be my last.

Looking for a good book? <em>Alice and the Assassin</em> by R. J. Koreto is a historical fiction mystery that moves a little too slowly but shows some promise for future books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

R.J. Koreto presents a historical thriller with Alice Roosevelt, the President's daughter and her secret service protector, as the sleuths in a New York mystery Alice and the Assassin. Interesting juxtaposition of high and low society in New York city just after the McKinley assassination.

This review ran in www.reviewingtheevidence.com

In real life, Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, led an unconventional life. She was independent, headstrong and a rule-breaker. In other words, the perfect character for a work of fiction.

R.J. Koreto, in the first of a new series, uses Alice's independence to make her an amateur sleuth at the age of seventeen, aided by her Secret Service bodyguard, Joseph St. Clair, a former Rough Rider and the story's narrator. At thirty, he is older than Alice, but still young enough to turn the heads of young women, the president's daughter included.

The story opens after the assassination of President William McKinley (which led to Roosevelt's presidency). McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, who had recently attended a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman. Alice, who lives with her aunt in Manhattan, is determined to investigate, first out of idle curiosity but later because she and St. Clair find themselves being followed, pushing her to believe there must be something—or someone—else behind the assassination. This leads them to all corners of New York—from the rarefied clubs of the city's biggest businessmen to the saloons of the Lower East side, where she meets with mobsters and anarchists. The whole time, she and St. Clair chase a shadowy man known only as "the Archangel."

The story is slow to start, but once it does, it is a gripping look at Manhattan, politics and big business at the turn of the century. Alice and St. Clair are engaging characters, and their back-and-forth banter adds much to the story. In real life, it is unlikely that Alice ever had a good-looking cowboy by her side—and that's a shame. But at least we can imagine what it would have been like, in this entertaining mystery.

Alice and the Assassin follows spirited Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, while she and her Secret Service body guard, Joseph St. Clair, attempt to solve a mystery connected to the assassination of President McKinley.

While the story was well written and Alice was a very intriguing character the book dragged its way through the plot and I often fell asleep after only a few pages. There was great dialogue and the banter between Alice and her body guard was interesting. The book is told from the body guards perspective and it would have been refreshing to see what Alice’s point of view was.
In addition there was a little too much going on. There were big name companies, political intrigue, a murderer on the loose and a lot of little loose ends. The ending was well done and tied everything up nicely but I had figured out what was going on before we got there.

Overall I give the book 3/5 stars. I would give the next book in the series a chance.

I received this book from Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.

This historical mystery stars a seventeen-year-old Alice Roosevelt and her Secret Service bodyguard/nanny Sgt. Joseph St. Clair. It takes place shortly after McKinley's assassination. Alice, fearing for her father's safety, begins her own investigation into McKinley's death. Her search leads her and St. Clair into parts of New York that she hasn't seen before as she investigates anarchists and immigrants from various ethnic groups. Soon, clues lead her and St. Clair to the family of one of her childhood friends - Preston van Schuyler. It seems like the van Schylers might be pushing the boundaries of the business practices of the day. They keep popping up in Alice's investigation.

The story is told by St. Clair who started life as a cowboy in Wyoming with side trips as a lawman in Wyoming to becoming a Rough Rider fighting with Teddy Roosevelt and to the Secret Service as Alice's bodyguard. He is a fascinating character who begins by indulging Alice's curiosity out of a sense of boredom but soon becomes intrigued himself. His cowboy persona hides a sharp man who might just have a couple of blind spots where Alice is concerned.

The novel's settings give the reader a grand tour of New York City in 1902. It also gives a good picture of the social structure of the city at that time. I liked the dynamics between the smart, sheltered and spoiled Alice Roosevelt and St. Clair. I'll admit to stopping in the middle of the story for a bit to research Alice since, while I'd heard of her, I knew little about her.

Fans of historical mysteries will enjoy this engaging and well-told tale.

The titular Alice is Alice Roosevelt, the willful daughter of President Teddy Roosevelt, who once said to author Owen Wister: “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both.”

Alice and the Assassin is clearly the debut in what is to be a series in which the clever, iconoclastic Alice, 17 as the novel opens, teams up with her 30-year-old Secret Service bodyguard, Joseph St. Clair, to solve politically tinged mysteries. Like her father, St. Clair finds Alice a handful, what with smoking in 1902, when women puffing on cigarettes was considered scandalous; gambling on horseraces through bookies, chewing gum, barging into low haunts, demanding and getting her own way at a time when women weren’t deemed intelligent enough to handle their own money or decide their own children’s fates, much less vote or hold office. I’m sure author R.J. Koreto undertook considerable research, peopling his novel with real-life contemporaries of Alice and Teddy Roosevelt; however, Alice’s behavior seems over the top even for Alice Roosevelt. She comes off as a bored debutante seeking thrills for thrills’ sake rather than as the intelligent, if impetuous, beauty who understood politics as well as her father. Despite whatever research he undertook, Koreto also refers to Alice’s aunt as Aunt Anna; Anna Roosevelt Cowles was never referred to as anything but Aunt Bye or Aunt Bamie. And if anyone believes that even a folksy cowboy-turned-Secret Service agent would risk his job by allowing the president’s daughter to brush shoulders with anarchists or drink rotgut beer in Lower East Side saloons, I have a great deal for you on the sale of what was then known as the East River Bridge.

In this novel, Alice gets a suspicion that President William McKinley’s assassin, Czech anarchist Leon Czolgosz, did not act alone, despite the official police determination. Readers get to see the pair interview a sour Emma Goldman, amongst other real historical figures and some fictional ones, in a conspiracy that will remind them of the Kennedy assassination. I won’t ruin the book by revealing what Alice and St. Clair discover, but I will say that I say where the novel was heading about one-fourth of the way in. Alice and the Assassin isn’t a great mystery, but colorful Alice and St. Clair make up for it. Here’s to hoping the next novel isn’t quite so over the top.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Roosevelt, spirited daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, drags her bodyguard around New York to uncover a mystery relating to the assassination of President McKinley.

An entertaining enough fictional adventure, but I can't say I was hugely enthralled. Alice's character is amusing and I enjoyed the banter between her and her bodyguard, but beyond that it was an average plot with average writing. I could let the unrealistic places the daughter of the president wound up in and people she talked to slide, as unlikely as it was even given her very real spunky nature, it was plausible enough for the sake of a good story. Unfortunately, the plot just seemed to dragged on, despite being a very short 288 pages. It picked up at the end, but by then I'd already figured out what was going on.

I also frequently wished we could have seen Alice's point of view.

Good, fun characters with lively dialogue and banter, but everything else fell just a bit short of the mark.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

"Fortune favors the bold."

And if you're seventeen year old Alice Roosevelt, you've got plenty of fortune and a king's ransom in boldness.

R.J. Koreto sets the stage here with a panorama of electrically charged historical situations. The timeline is set after the assassination of President McKinley in September of 1901 and the swearing-in of Teddy Roosevelt himself. The air is ripe with the sting of anarchy and the assumption that Leo Czolgosz acted as a "Lone Wolf". We'll even enter into the den of the Freethinker Club and dialogue with the likes of Emma Goldman.

Special Agent Joseph St. Clair will be handed a monumental assignment wrapped in the diminutive stature of Teddy's teenage daughter, Alice. Formerly of the Rough Riders and a boot-wearing, Stetson hatted cowboy, Joe knows his stellar agent skills will be challenged as he tries to reel in the untameable Alice. Joe has a lively vein of adventure himself as well which gives into the "jump without looking" gene imbedded within Alice's DNA. He readily admits that this little wildcat will test every nerve with: "I know, and your fearlessness frightens the hell out of me."

Alice wishes to pursue the anarchy trail with concern for her father, Teddy. This first step will take them on a precarious road filled with questionable situations that no seventeen year old would even dream of experiencing. But then this is Alice and this is meant to be the lively noted conquests of a young woman who won't take no, never, or not at face value.

R.J. Koreto has done a fine job with his historical research. But we, as readers, must suspend belief around every corner as Alice slips into free-rein of every situation. Alice is pushy, opinionated, outlandish in her thinking and mindset........just as she was in real life. This is every inch an adventure novel to be enjoyed for simply being just that.

Will Special Agent Joe St. Clair ever get a handle on all of this in the next books of the series? Just think of what Teddy had to say: "Can't run the country and handle Alice at the same time."

I received a copy of Alice and the Assassin through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Crooked Lane Publishing and to R.J. Koreto for the opportunity.

I did not finish this book as I did not engage with this story at all.

Alice Roosevelt was perhaps best known for her snarky quote: "if you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." If that isn't enough to make you want to pick up a light mystery with her as the protagonist, what is?

This book was filled with inappropriate behavior by a feisty, precocious, entitled seventeen year old Alice---but, I say that in the most positive sense. Who wouldn't want to spend a few hours with a President's daughter behaving badly? And, this book is filled with just that and I enjoyed her spunk, her initiative, and her crush on her Secret Service (cowboy) bodyguard. It was a joyous romp through a few murders and a little mayhem.

My quibble with the book, which led to the modest rating, is that it required a little too much suspension of disbelief to accept that a professional Secret Service man in charge of the new President's daughter would let her call the shots on every step of their "investigation." She seemed too capable and he didn't seem capable enough (beyond the shooting and fighting stuff). She did all the thinking and as much as I enjoy a bright woman over-shadowing all the men in the room--this just taxed my imagination too much.

Perhaps if the author continues the series as projected, the relationship (and power balance) between Alice and her Secret Service man will mature and the stories will be more plausible. As it stands, Volume 1 was fun, but a few adjustments by the writer and editor could have made it a better book.

Net galley provided me a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Love that the character of Alice Roosevelt is finally getting some love! The plot, other main and secondary characters, and the time period are solid. Looking forward to more of her adventures.

The first book in the Alice Roosevelt mysteries is a solid read. Alice is a forgotten historical figure that was ahead of her time. She makes for a good curious mystery sleuth. I felt the conspiracy theory over McKinley was far reaching.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

I loved this book. From the first page you're expertly drawn into New York in 1902 by the two main characters - Miss Alice Roosevelt - a very feisty 17 year old who speaks her mind, says the odd naughty word and lets no one get in her way because she is the President's daughter, and Mr St Clair, an old (but not that old) soldier, lawman and rancher who is now her Secret Service Agent in light of the previous President's assassination.

Immediately the reader is drawn into a possible conspiracy regarding the previous President's assassination which no one, other than Miss Alice, thinks needs investigating and which only gets bigger as Alice and St Clair discover more and more, by calling on contacts and following up each and every lead they're presented with. They visit the Italian district, the Chinese district, the docklands, the jail and the odd nice restaurant, as well as travelling on the 'elevated'.

The storyline evolves at a good pace, the chapters are quite short and by the time you reach the end of the novel you might well have worked out who it is a little bit before Miss Alice, but other than that, you will have been kept guessing and wondering whether she's making more of something than she should, to just relieve the boredom of her, and Mr St Clair's days.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and very much appreciated the author's efforts to describe old New York. I hope there are more books in this series.