Lay This Body Down
A Gideon Stoltz Mystery
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
"Richly textured historical fiction with the urgency of a mystery novel. Fergus knows certain things, deep in the bone: horses, hunting, the folkways of rural places, and he weaves this wisdom into a stirring tale.” – Geraldine Brooks, author of March and People of the Book and Horse
Lay This Body Down, the third Gideon Stoltz Mystery, takes place in 1837 during one of the most horrific periods in pre-Civil War America, when human beings were considered chattel and both northern and southern states grew rich from slave labor. A Pennsylvania sheriff like Gideon could choose to uphold the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 or defy that racist law at great peril. In this hard-hitting, action-packed novel, Gideon tries to protect a boy who has fled north from a Virginia plantation – and pays dearly for his principles. Written with the vivid, atmospheric prose that imbues the whole series, the life and times of an early American backwoods town and its hardscrabble citizens will grip readers as Gideon and his wife True solve a murder, bust a kidnapping ring, and help one unforgettable boy who courageously chooses freedom above all else.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1837, Fergus's fine third Gideon Stoltz mystery (after 2021's Nighthawk's Wing) vividly recreates pre–Civil War tensions in the service of a gripping whodunit. After Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1780, the state became a refuge for those who escaped from enslavement. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 places Stoltz, the Colerain County, Pa., sheriff, in a bind; he's legally obliged to help slave catchers hunt down their quarry, but he doesn't sympathize with their efforts. Then two Virginians appear in the town of Adamant searching for a teenage runaway, Leo Waller, who has helped the sheriff with a murder investigation. Their arrival coincides with a report from Black citizen Melchior Dorfman that three Black people have gone missing. Meanwhile, someone smashes in the skull of Phineas Potter, the publisher of the local newspaper, who endorsed Stoltz's opponent in the last sheriff's election. Dorfman becomes a suspect, having been seen arguing with Potter the night before by Stoltz himself, after they attended a talk by an abolitionist disrupted by violent members of the audience. Fergus's plotting matches his superior historical detail. This series merits a long run.
