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Shelley Freydont | Recipe for a Gilded Age Murder
June 20, 2016
When I was asked to give the perfect set of circumstances for a
historical mystery, I didn’t have to think long. It’s just like putting together
a perfect recipe. A GOLDEN CAGE, A Newport Gilded Age Mystery. Take one opulent era of history. Mark Twain called it The
Gilded Age and it ran from around 1870 to 1900. It was an era of serious social
problems masked by a thin veneer of gold. A time of industrialization, huge
growth, incredible wealth and wide spread corruption. A time of power struggles
in commerce, justice and morality. A time of conspicuous consumption by the
haves and poverty and hard work by the have nots. Add in one seaside Resort town. Newport Rhode Island in 1895.
Where the nation's wealthiest families summered in sumptuous mansions they
called "cottages". Add a dollop of family. The wife and daughter of a prominent
well respected judge threw him a huge birthday fete and invited all the richest
families (among them, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Oelrich’s and the
Fishes), mayhem ensued. Mix with a professional theatrical troupe. Hired away from
their theater for the evening to present a play called The Sphinx. Stir in one ingénue who ran away from a rich and respectable
family to seek her fortune behind the footlights. Add spice with a handsome young actor who takes the town by storm. Whisk all ingredients with a young debutante named Deanna
Randolph, her maid Elspeth and her former fiancé Joe until the culprit is
brought to justice. Arrange on a bed of secrets and scandals, bicycles and tennis matches, zealot
moralists and Women’s suffragettes. Garnish with quirky local residents and extravagant fashions and serve in A GOLDEN CAGE. All that is left is to enjoy!
The author of A Gilded Grave returns to Newport, Rhode Island, at
the close of the nineteenth century, where headstrong heiress Deanna Randolph
must solve another murder among the social elite.
With her mother in Europe, Deanna is staying with the Ballard family, who
agree to chaperone her through the summer season and guide her toward an
advantageous marriage proposal—or so her mother hopes. Relishing her new
freedom, Deanna is more interested in buying one of the fashionable new bathing
costumes, joining a ladies’ bicycling club, and befriending an actress named
Amabelle Deeks, all of which would scandalize her mother.
Far more scandalous is the discovery of a young man bludgeoned to death on
the conservatory floor at Bonheur, the Ballards’ sumptuous “cottage.” Deanna
recognizes him as an actor who performed at the birthday fete for a prominent
judge the night before. But why was he at Bonheur? And where is Amabelle?
Concerned her new friend may be in danger—or worse—Deanna enlists the help of
her intrepid maid, Elspeth, and her former beau, Joe Ballard, to find Amabelle
before the villain of this drama demands an encore.
Shelley Freydont is also the author of several romance novels under the
pseudonym Gemma Bruce. Shelley is past president of Sisters-in-Crime, NY, NJ,
CT, and a member of Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and
Liberty States Fiction Writers. She lives in New Jersey.
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