Through her exquisite prose, sharp observation and deft plotting, Mariah Fredericks invites us into the heart of a changing New York in her remarkable debut adult novel, A Death of No Importance.
New York City, 1910. Invisible until sheโs needed, Jane Prescott has perfected the art of serving as a ladiesโ maid to the cityโs upper echelons. When she takes up a position with the Benchley family, dismissed by the cityโs elite as โnew moneyโ, Jane realizes that while she may not have financial privilege, she has a power they do notโshe understands the rules of high society. The Benchleys cause further outrage when their daughter Charlotte becomes engaged to notorious playboy Norrie, the son of the eminent Newsome family.
But when Norrie is found murdered at a party, Jane discovers she is uniquely positionedโsheโs a woman no one sees, but who witnesses everything; who possesses no social power, but that of fierce intellectโand therefore has the tools to solve his murder. There are many with grudges to bear: from the family Norrie was supposed to marry into, to the survivors of a tragic accident in a mine owned by the Newsomes, to the rising anarchists who are sick of those born into wealth getting away with anything they want. Jane also knows that in both high society and the cityโs underbelly, morals can become cheap in the wrong hands: scandal and violence simmer just beneath the surfaceโand can break out at any time.
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