Book Title: I DIED FOR BEAUTY
Character Name: Willa Noble
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I grew up with just my mother and younger brother. My father left us when my brother was an infant. Our mother was sick most of our childhood and passed away when I was twelve. I went to work and cared for my brother Henry and me. Life was hard, but we did our best.
What was your greatest talent?
I’m a good listener and pay attention. I’m able to pick up on things others might miss.
Significant other?
There is a police officer, Matthew, who cares for me. I hold him at an arm’s length. My life is too challenging and I’ve worked to hard to let a man get in the way.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
I am second maid for the Dickinson family. I have had that position for a few years and in that time, I have become close friends to the eldest daughter Emily. Emily doesn’t recognize the class distinctions between us. She believes that we are equals. I am well aware that we are not. It can make my life difficult with the other servants and members of the household.
Where do you live?
Amherst, Massachusetts at the Emily Dickinson Homestead
Do you have any enemies?
Many because Emily and I are responsible for putting several killers in prison.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
The Dickinson home is the finest place I have ever worked. Before coming here, I worked at a boarding house with a cruel owner. I’m so grateful for the work and do my best not to ruin it.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Neither, but am very attached to Miss Lavinia, Emily’s sister’s, cat, Baby Z.
What do you do for a living?
I am second maid in the Dickinson household.
Greatest disappointment?
The loss of my younger brother Henry.
Greatest source of joy?
My friendship with Emily Dickinson.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I do love to read, and Emily has let me borrow many of her books.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Worry. I have lost much in my life and am always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
What keeps you awake at night?
If I could have saved my brother Henry.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
The cold. This winter of 1857 is the coldest on record and risk of fire is constant.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I wish I had a second chance to save my brother Henry.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Henry made his own choices that were noble but led to his own demise. I could not stop him when he was on that path.
Emily Dickinson Mystery #3
When a blaze takes both a neighbor’s home and his life, Emily Dickinson and her maid Willa have a burning desire to crack the case in this new historical mystery from Agatha Award–winning author Amanda Flower.
Amherst, 1857. The Dickinson family braves one of the worst winters in New England’s history. Trains are snowbound and boats are frozen in the harbor. Emily Dickinson and her maid, Willa Noble, have never witnessed anything like it. As Amherst families attempt to keep their homes warm, fears of fire abound.
These worries prove not to be unfounded as a blaze breaks out just down the street from the Dickinson in Kelley Square, the Irish community in Amherst, and a young couple is killed, leaving behind their young child. Their deaths appear to be a tragic accident, but Emily finds herself harboring suspicions there may be more to the fire than meets the eye. Emily and Willa must withstand the frigid temperatures and discover a killer lurking among the deadly frost.
Mystery Historical [Berkley, On Sale: February 25, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593816462 / eISBN: 9780593816479]
A Captivating Historical Mystery Set During a Harsh Winter
Witty Suspense with hope
Amanda Flower, an Agatha-nominated mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. Her debut mystery, Maid of Murder, was an Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel. Amanda is an academic librarian for a small college near Cleveland. She also writes mysteries as Isabella Alan.
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