Murder at Mount Vernon

At George Washington's Mount Vernon, someone has committed the perfect crime. Except nothing at Mount Vernon is ever truly perfect.

Murder at Mount Vernon is a richly layered historical mystery set at the iconic Virginia estate in the spring of 1789, the weeks immediately before George Washington accepts the presidency of the fragile new nation. Narrated by his witty and conflicted aide Colonel David Humphreys, this whodunit blends political intrigue, moral reckoning, and edge-of-your-seat detective work in the tradition of C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear.

When the battered body of Julius, an enslaved overseer, is pulled from the icy Potomac River, Washington faces an impossible choice: bury the evidence to protect his political future, or pursue justice and invite chaos. He chooses justice, but only barely. What begins as a single murder quickly unravels into something far more sinister: a ring of theft and night-walking, enslaved spies feeding information to shadowy white handlers, and a web of secrets stretching from the slave quarters all the way to the corridors of British imperial ambition.

Humphreys questions the terrified, tight-lipped enslaved people of Mount Vernon, chases a runaway witness through the taverns of Alexandria, and navigates the treacherous politics of Virginia's antifederalist faction, while Washington wrestles with the question of whether a man can build a free country on the backs of enslaved people. The deeper Humphreys digs, the more bodies appear.

Then assassins open fire on the road to Muddy Hole Farm. Suddenly it's clear this isn't just a plantation murder. Someone powerful wants this investigation buried.

With each answer, a deadlier question emerges: Who is the white man pulling the strings, and how close is he to the man who is about to become the first president of the United States?

Perfect for fans of historical mysteries that blend moral weight with mounting dread, where the crimes of the past refuse to stay buried.