The Altar Girl is a Mystery, Crime, Thriller story that centers around Nadia, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants. Raised in a Ukrainian neighborhood, she was brought up under a strict set of old country values and rules. Namely, that family comes first, no matter what, and you never rat out someone from the neighborhood, no matter what; unless they’re not Uke.
When her godfather dies under mysterious circumstances, shortly after she loses her job, she decides to investigate his death. This takes her back to the old neighborhood where she’s met with obstacles and threats, not only from those she grew up with but from her own family.
While I was raised in a similar neighborhood, I could easily relate to parts of the story. However, overall, I found the action of most of the characters, especially Nadia, to be extremely hard to believe. And, as a sleuth, Nadia was impossible to believe.
Perhaps because of my background, that left me reading a cute, hard to believe crime, mystery thriller without much mystery or thrill and a whole bunch of crime. So, the story was worth finishing but, in the end, just okay.
A no surprise story line with nicely developed but hard to believe characters.
Just okay. Recommended if you’ve got nothing else to read.