Product Description

IN A HAVEN FOR FALLEN WOMEN, HAS HISTORY’S MOST DEPRAVED KILLER RISEN AGAIN?

The Back Bay has been filled in. Palm readers and prostitutes ply their trade in South Cove. And the watchword of the day is “NINA:” No Irish Need Apply. Boston in 1892 is a town of Victorian pride, prejudice, and private passions.

Now, on Beacon Hill, a crusading woman and her genteel brother, Addington, are investigating two grisly murders of young women, the work, say police, of “a deranged person.” For Caroline Ames, solving the mystery is a matter of helping an old friend, the woman who runs a home for wayward women known as Bertram’s Bower. But for Addington, the investigation will lead to the revelations of a sexually alluring, scandal-struck actress...and to the secrets of some of Boston’s most “respectable” men.

As Addington confronts the hypocrisy of Brahmin society, he moves closer to a shocking suspicion about the killer’s identity. And as fear grips the city, the evidence points in one frightening direction: that London’s Jack the Ripper is alive, well, and killing again. . .


From the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #963619 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-26
• Released on: 2002-03-26
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 332 pages

From Library Journal
Ripper-like murders of "wayward" women in Victorian Boston attract the attention of a brother-and-sister sleuthing team, who, with their surgeon/boarder, step in where police will not because of anti-Irish sentiment. Addington and Caroline Ames want the murderer caught so that scandal will not close down Bertram's Bower, a shelter for fallen women run by a friend of Caroline. Suspects include an Irish teen who works at the shelter, the clergyman/brother of the owner, Irish gang members, and perhaps the police themselves. Picturesque characterizations, solid plotting, and great period atmosphere recommend this second Beacon Hill mystery (after The Death of Colonel Mann) to all collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Peale (The Death of Colonel Mann, 2000) returns to Victorian Boston, where amateur sleuths Caroline and Addington Ames and their boarder, Dr. John McKenzie, investigate the murders of two residents of Bertram's Bower, a home for wayward women. Agatha Montgomery, Caroline's friend, runs the home, and her brother, the Reverend Montgomery, raises funds for it. There is no shortage of suspects: a typewriter salesman, a young Irish immigrant who works as a handyman at the home, and the matron who seems to despise both the residents of the Bower and all men. Or perhaps Jack the Ripper lived to cross the pond. The search for clues takes readers on a tour of Boston's rigid society, with its class distinctions, prejudice against the growing Irish immigrant population, and narrowly defined women's roles. Peale, a pseudonym of Nancy Zaroulis, has done her research and created a fine portrait of Boston and its inhabitants in 1892. Strongly recommended for historical cozy fans. Barbara Bibel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover
“A fascinating historical tale...A fine who-done-it.”
–Midwest Book Review

“Picturesque characterizations, solid plotting, and great period atmosphere...”
–Library Journal