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\u201cThe Girl from Greenwich Street,\u201d\u00a0 by Lauren Willig (William Morrow)<\/p>\n\u201cThe Girl from Greenwich Street,\u201d\u00a0 by Lauren Willig (William Morrow)
\n\u201cThe Girl from Greenwich Street,\u201d\u00a0 by Lauren Willig (William Morrow)<\/p>\n
In 1799, Elma Sands left her Manhattan home, confiding to a cousin that she was eloping. Instead, she was murdered, her body shoved down a well. Levi Weeks, who boarded in Elma\u2019s house, was quickly charged. The arrest caused a frenzy. Broadsides were published with details of the murder, and New Yorkers demanded that Levi be hanged. Then Levi\u2019s wealthy brother hired Aaron Burr to defend him. And when Frederick Hamilton heard of Burr\u2019s appointment, he insisted on joining the defense team. The two political rivals, who despised each other, worked at cross-purposes:\u00a0 Burr insisted on an insanity defense, while Hamilton wanted to find the real killer.<\/p>\n
Using trial accounts and other records for this historical fiction, Lauren Willig re-creates not only the two famous lawyers but Elma\u2019s household of relatives and boarders as well. She sets them against a background of teaming streets and early American prejudices (i.e., that Elma was partly to blame for her death because she was a bastard, with inherited immorality). Beautifully written, \u201cThe Girl from Greenwich Street\u201d is both history and crime, and a terrific read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Last Days of Kira Mullen,\u201d by Nicci French (William Morrow)<\/p>\n
Nancy North has just recovered from a nervous breakdown when she and her partner, Felix, move into an apartment in a dilapidated house in London. A day or two later, the woman living in the flat below is found hanged. The police rule suicide, but Nancy insists the woman, Kira, was murdered.<\/p>\n
Nobody believes Nancy, including the controlling Felix, who has told everyone in the building about Nancy\u2019s mental episode. When Nancy refuses to stop insisting Kira was murdered, Felix has her committed again. Nancy insists there\u2019s nothing wrong with her \u2014 proof, the doctors say, that she\u2019s mad. Once back in the apartment, Nancy plots to leave Felix, but he\u2019s set her up. He\u2019s torn up her credit card, got her fired from her job and convinced everyone in the building that she\u2019s still crazy. Nancy\u2019s trapped until she meets Maud, a detective who agrees with Nancy that Kira was murdered.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Cook and the Klan,\u201d by Tom Chorneau (University of Nebraska Press)<\/p>\n
Despite its title, the nonfiction \u201cMrs. Cook and the Klan\u201d is mostly the story of \u201cBooze, Bloodshed and Bigotry in America\u2019s Heartland,\u201d as its subtitle says. It\u2019s atually a history of Iowa (and Mrs. Cook doesn\u2019t really show up until the last 20 pages). Cook was a police informant who lived across from the railroad station in Vinton, Iowa, and kept track of illegal bootlegging activity. Her 1925 death was never solved. Author Tom Chorneau, an investigative reporter, has an idea of who the killer was.<\/p>\n
Most books have typos and minor factual errors too insignificant to be pointed out. But the error in \u201cMrs. Cook and the Klan\u201d is too funny to ignore. The author mentions a unit of the First U.S. Dragoons ordered to travel to Des Moines to study whether the river was navigable. He writes, \u201cThe calvary would have needed to come north \u2026 .\u201d The word, of course is cavalry. (Calvary was the hill in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.)<\/p>\n
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\u201cMrs. Cook and the Klan,\u201d by Tom Chorneau (University of Nebraska Press)
\n\u201cHome of the Happy,\u201d by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot (Mariner Books)<\/p>\n
In 1983, an intruder kidnapped and murdered Cajun banker Aubrey LaHaye from his home in Mamou, La. LaHaye\u2019s wife identified a local man, John Brady Balfa, as the culprit. Balfa was later found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. He should have been paroled long ago, but laws changed, and he has spent 40 years in prison. He is likely to die there.<\/p>\n
Nobody in Aubrey\u2019s extended family ever talked about the killing, so Aubrey\u2019s great-granddaughter, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, set out to find out what happened to her PawPaw and whether John Brady was really guilty. The result is this nonfiction murder mystery, whose Cajun setting is captured in a descriptive, sometimes lyrical, style worthy of James Lee Burke.<\/p>\n
\u201cVera Wong\u2019s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man),\u201d\u00a0 by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley)<\/p>\n
Vera Wong is back. That endearing Chinese tea shop owner knows that she will get to the bottom of the death of young Xander. Suicide or murder? Millie, Xander\u2019s friend, enlists the aid of Vera, then backs off, leaving Vera with another mystery to solve. Millie should know Vera will never give up. She enlists friends and relatives and characters from author Jesse Q. Sutanto\u2019s previous book to help.\u00a0The loveable Vera is exasperating, and this book is a delight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Would Die For You,\u201d\u00a0 by Sandie Jones (Minotaur Books)<\/p>\n
Life is pretty good for Nicole Forbes. She lives in Southern California with an adoring husband and happy young daughter. Her only worry is protecting the seals on Coronado Beach. Then a woman shows up at her door, asking about Nicole\u2019s relationship with Ben Edwards, a famous British rock star, and a 20-year-old scandal. The same day, Nicole\u2019s daughter is kidnapped by an \u201cauntie.\u201d Nicole\u2019s carefully hidden life is about to be unveiled. When he discovers who his wife really is, Nicole\u2019s husband walks out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Would Die For You\u201d goes back and forth between Nicole\u2019s California life and her 1986 love affair with Ben.\u00a0 Author Jones slowly reveals Nicole\u2019s love affair with the head of the hottest band in England, kept secret because her younger sister has an unhealthy crush on Ben and can\u2019t distinguish her fantasies from real life. Warning: Readers may be disappointed at the book\u2019s ending.<\/p>\n