Pearls and Poison: A Rose Gallagher Mystery

Lindsey’s sprightly fourth case for Pinkerton detective Rose Gallagher (after The Silver Shooter) finds the intrepid investigator of paranormal activity probing a series of suspicious deaths in Gilded Age New York City. In October 1887, an obsession with the occult swirls through the upper echelons of Manhattan society. Meanwhile, in a dingy apartment building downtown, a series of people have died by poison under bizarre circumstances: none of the victims were tenants of the building, nor did they have relatives living there, and all died on the building’s unused ground floor near strange symbols on the wall. The wealthy parents of the most recent victim hire Rose to look into the matter; it’s her first solo case since her partner, Thomas, moved to San Francisco without warning. Looking for potential clues, Rose joins Mark Twain and other high-profile guests at a séance hosted by purported psychic Madame Mercury, after which the killer targets Rose’s family. Fortifying her well-oiled whodunit plot with dashes of fantasy and romance, Lindsey serves up another appealing adventure for the intrepid Rose. It’s an inspired romp. Agent: Amanda Jain, BookEnds Literary. (Dec.)