Can a forward-thinking woman help the police solve a murder in a backward-thinking town?
“Great new series, the time period details are interesting and the mystery intriguing.”
California, 1903: Smart, inquisitive, and a firm believer in the new progressive reforms, Adele Gossling seeks a new life after the devastating death of her father. She flees San Francisco for the small town of Arrojo, planning a life of peace and small pleasures with nothing more exciting than selling fountain pens to the locals in her stationery shop and partaking in the town’s favorite pastime: gossip.
Peace is exactly what she doesn’t get when she discovers her neighbor’s dead body in her gazebo. The police think they have a firm suspect: the young man who was secretly engaged to the victim. But Adele and her clairvoyant new friend Nin Branch are sure he’s innocent. In spite of the raised eyebrows from Arrojo’s Victorian-minded citizens, they set out to prove the young man didn’t do it. But if he didn’t, who did?
If you love smart, intricate whodunits in the spirit of Agatha Christie, Anna Katharine Green, and Dorothy L. Sayers, you’ll love this series featuring a sassy woman sleuthing her way through one of America’s most explosive eras.