The White Crow
A Beacon Hill Mystery
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
When the lights come on after a séance in the parlor of Victorian Boston’s most celebrated spiritualist, a pillar of the community lies dead. The world of restless and vengeful spirits has invaded Beacon Hill--while Caroline Ames, seated next to the victim, may hold the key to an all-too-real crime.
From the mysterious device called the telephone to the new electric conveyances that cross the Charles, a tide of change is rising around Caroline, her brother, Addington, and their boarder, Dr. MacKenzie. For Caroline, it has been a time to face her loneliness--and the growing affection she feels for Dr. MacKenzie. For Addington, it is a time marked by the fierce, ineffable pull of a beautiful but dangerous woman. Now they find themselves in the center of a maelstrom, at the heart of a case of multiple murder. And while a killer has already claimed two victims, a clairvoyant has revealed the third: “Ames next . . .”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gaslight thriller, the third and last to feature the brother-and-sister team of Caroline and Addington Ames (after 2001's Murder at Bertram's Bower), delivers some notable frissons, even if it never quite embraces the supernatural. When Addington, a committed skeptic, asks William James his opinion of society medium Mrs. Sidgwick, the eminent psychologist replies: "Even if there were no other medium in the world who had her powers, she alone proves that such powers exist. I put it this way: If you seek to prove that all crows are not black, you need only one white crow. And Mrs. Sidgwick is my white crow." At a s ance conducted by Mrs. Sidgwick, Caroline is anxious to make contact with her late mother. Alas, the spirit of Mrs. Ames proves elusive. When Mrs. Sidgwick succeeds in reaching the deceased wife of one of the other "querants," Theophilus Clay, a liberal philanthropist and one of the richest men in Boston, that worthy gentleman drops dead on the spot. After Addington proves Clay's death to be murder, Mrs. Sidgwick receives an ominous message reading "Ames next." The unsurprising denouement is somewhat disappointing, even conventional, after the beguilingly atmospheric buildup. The languid pace and frequent longueurs won't please more impatient, hot-blooded mystery fans, but those who care more for rich historical backdrop than the mechanics of crime-solving should be reasonably satisfied. FYI:Peale is the pseudonym of novelist Nancy Zaroulis.
