The Martha Beale Mystery series currently comprises three books; many of the characters in them are based on real ancestors of the author, Cordelia Frances Biddle, in Philadelphia. I had not read the others but dived straight in to THE CONJURER, which is told in present tense.
Martha Beale is at home on the country estate one bitter cold day when her father's dogs are found crouching, bereft, at the riverbank. The man's hunting rifle and creel are nearby but there is no sign of him. She has to hope that the current carried him downstream towards Philadelphia on the opposite shore; searches come up empty. Martha has been fortunate in life, but even this good household manager can't avert tragedy.
Philadelphia at this time is a city that knows poverty and crime. There is a prison which prides itself on solitary penance, but unfortunately only flushes the sewers out every two weeks. We meet some of the inmates, male and female, and learn their stories of suffering and insufficient work. Martha is determined to start doing worthy works, but as is fitting for a lady of her station she turns first to the orphan home. She hopes that this will encourage the officers and politicians to keep up the search for her father, alive or dead. Manufacturing is becoming a major source of wealth in the city, with Derringer located here and cloth mills, so to furnish their employees' homes with gas lighting and water piping, other men are coming forward with plans that will make their fortunes. However, the different types of people living crowded together distrust and resent one another, leading to riots and attacks. A tailor with a club foot, a prostitute and a small boy who takes fits, each experience different hardships. None so vile as the murder of a little girl by a customer at Nell's House of Pleasure, though. Can the street people unify for long enough to find this evil brute? And how will Martha the lady of gentility, play a a part?
I had to admire the research behind this work. Anyone interested in the turbulent history of Philadelphia will enjoy this mystery, which is not for the faint of heart, but uses the strongly-drawn characters to bring aspects of the past to life. Cordelia Frances Biddle crams a lot into THE CONJURER, while leaving us with the promise of spring and more mystery in Deception's Daughter.
An heiress breaks free of social conventions and attempts to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance in 1842 Philadelphia in Cordelia Frances Biddle’s first Martha Beale mystery When her father fails to appear for lunch at their country estate, Martha Beale knows something is wrong. The family’s faithful dogs discover Lemuel Beale’s hunting rifle by the river, but there is no sign of the millionaire financier. Refusing to believe he is dead, his daughter—and sole heir—begins a discreet investigation with the help of the mayor’s aide, Thomas Kelman. But Philadelphia in 1842 is a dangerous place for a female, especially a twenty-six-year-old single woman. Martha’s quest for answers takes her from the pinnacle of high society, which is abuzz about a visiting European conjurer who communicates with the dead, to the city’s tragic slums where a brutal killer is targeting young prostitutes—and through it all Martha will confront the most ruthless aspects of human nature. In a story deeply rooted in time and place and brimming with atmosphere and suspense, Cordelia Frances Biddle conjures a mesmerizing world of intrigue and hidden desires.
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