A Death of No Importance

Starred review from January 29, 2018
YA author Fredericks (Season of the Witch) makes her adult debut with a sparkling mystery set in 1910 Manhattan. Lady’s maid Jane Prescott works for the Benchleys, who have the money but not the sophistication to be part of elite society. When the Benchleys’ daughter Charlotte falls for Robert “Norrie” Newsome, the playboy heir to a mining fortune, drama ensues. At the Christmas Eve ball Norrie’s parents reluctantly hold to announce his engagement to Charlotte, he’s found dead, his eyes gouged out. Charlotte, the young woman Norrie jilted when he took up with her, and their families all have motives, as do local anarchists with a history of violent protest and the families of those killed in a recent Newsome mine disaster. Concerned for her employers, Jane looks into the murder with help from an attractive reporter and a chemist knowledgeable about emerging forensic techniques. The novel’s voice, plotting, pace, characterization, and historical background are all expertly crafted, while the resolution—which feels both surprising and convincing—will leave readers hungry for more. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.

March 1, 2018
The title of YA novelist Fredericks' first book for adults suggests the theme of its intricate historical mystery and pointed commentary on human nature. In 1910, for New York's wealthiest citizens?the New York 400?who hold the city's purse strings, the sad truth is that only some lives are important. At the same time, disagreeing anarchists plot violent revolution to force changes in working conditions, crime, and poverty. Deftly woven around these issues is the murder of a playboy, Norrie Newsome, whose family is one of the 400 and whose murderer may be one of the two women he had promised to marry. The story is told through the first-person narration of lady's maid Jane Prescott, perfectly positioned to observe the very rich. The murder plot unspools against the vividly evoked background of a horrific mine disaster, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the growing campaign for women's rights. Readers can enjoy a similarly down-to-earth and quick-witted heroine in Rosemary Simpson's puzzler What the Dead Leave Behind (2017) and the same wealthy cesspools of greed in Victoria Thompson's Murder in the Bowery (2017).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2018

Years after Jane Prescott joined the wealthy but parvenu Benchley family as maid to the two daughters, she recalls the 1910 crime that made all the New York papers. Younger daughter Charlotte had flung herself at notorious playboy Norrie Newsome, heir to the Newsome fortune. On Christmas Eve, before the announcement of their engagement, Jane finds Norrie's body in the library. As the scandal sheets waver between suspecting anarchists or Charlotte, the observant Jane teams up with a reporter to uncover other suspects. Fredericks's (The Girl in the Park) first adult mystery is a richly detailed historical that addresses the social issues and class inequities of the early 20th century. Jane is an appealing amateur sleuth, an orphan exposed to the excesses of the wealthy while remaining friends with union organizers and anarchists. VERDICT With its vivid depiction of contrasting worlds this series debut should appeal to readers of Alyssa Maxwell's "Gilded Age" historical mysteries.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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