October 3, 2022
Simpson’s intriguing seventh Gilded Age mystery (after 2021’s The Dead Cry Justice) sends New York investigative attorneys Prudence MacKenzie and Geoffrey Hunter to Niagara Falls in 1890, when land prices are skyrocketing in the face of burgeoning industrialization. Lucas Adderly, before he went missing seven years earlier, put some of his family fortune as well as valuable newly purchased land in trust for his daughter, Rowan, who’s expected to gain control of the trust on her upcoming 18th birthday. Lucas’s greedy mother attempts to block Rowan’s inheritance by claiming that the girl’s late mother was promiscuous and she’s another man’s child. Shortly after arriving in Niagara, Prudence and Geoffrey watch “Crazy Louie” Whiting, who hopes to be the first human to survive a trip over the falls, send a sheep down the cascade in a barrel. When the barrel reaches the bottom, it reveals the corpse of a surveyor’s assistant who suspected collusion between corrupt government officials and those seeking profits from Niagara land. Incorporating characters ranging from Indigenous tribespeople to souvenir shills, Simpson brings Niagara and its contentious modernization to life. This one’s for history buffs and fans of smart female sleuths. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary.
October 15, 2022
A call for help on a matter of law turns into a treacherous case of investigative work in 1890 New York. Prudence MacKenzie and her partner, former Pinkerton agent Geoffrey Hunter, have formed an investigative law firm in New York City. A note from Prudence's aunt, Lady Rotherton, sends the pair to Niagara Falls to help a friend of hers. Although the falls were made a state park in 1885, factories still mar the landscape five years later, and big money is sniffing around the possibilities for hydroelectric power. Lady Rotherton's friend Lady Ernestine Hamilton, who lives on the Canadian side, is trying to protect a 17-year-old girl named Rowan Adderly, whose rapacious grandmother was horrified when her son married a beautiful Irish singer. Now Rowan, the couple's daughter, is set to inherit a large fortune. When both her parents were presumed dead, Rowan was removed from boarding school and put into service. Now she's hiding in a cabin in the woods with a blind man and his protective dog while her grandmother tries to have her declared illegitimate. Prudence and Geoffrey soon become involved in the hoopla surrounding the falls, led by Crazy Louie Whiting, who's constantly building barrels in an attempt to successfully send a human over the falls. When the body of odd jobber Martin Fallow is found in a barrel supposedly containing a sheep, his death turns out to be murder. Losing no time, the sleuthing couple send for their secretary, Josiah Gregory, to investigate any relevant paperwork about the Adderlys and for tough and clever Amos Lang, another former Pinkerton, who gets a job with Crazy Louie. The shocking truth they uncover puts everyone involved in great danger. Historical descriptions of Niagara Falls are a bigger treat than a mystery replete with dead ends.
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