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She Came Too Late is the first novel by Mary Wings featuring Boston Women's Advice Line worker Emma Victor. Emma breaks the cardinal rule of working on advice lines and agrees to meet personally with a woman who asks for her by name. As is the way of detective novels by the time Emma Arrives for the meeting the Julie Arbeder is dead and the police are arriving. What did she want, and why was she killed?
Arbeder lived in a tumbledown house with two other women and a puppy (guess who owns a puppy by the end of the book?) - and worked in a warehouse where she fought loudly and energetically for union rights. But was this enough to get her killed; naturally I'm not telling. Among the other possibilities are the sometimes philanthropic Glassman family, the dynamic Stacy Weldemeer and the aluring Dr Francis Cohen. All have something to hide and all were somehow involved with Julie Arbeder.
The book has locations as diverse as tumbledown industrial districts, plush old-money mansions, weird basement hideaways and high-tec medical facilities. There are a wide variety of people to enjoy, empathise with and either like or loath - all written with skill imagination and wit. For animal lovers there is also a cat, some frogs and a puppy. All in all a good read.