Alice and the Assassin
An Alice Roosevelt Mystery
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In 1902 New York, Alice Roosevelt, the bright, passionate, and wildly unconventional daughter of newly sworn-in President Theodore Roosevelt, is placed under the supervision of Secret Service Agent Joseph St. Clair, ex-cowboy and veteran of the Rough Riders. St. Clair quickly learns that half his job is helping Alice roll cigarettes and escorting her to bookies, but matters grow even more difficult when Alice takes it upon herself to investigate a recent political killing—the assassination of former president William McKinley.
Concerned for her father's safety, Alice seeks explanations for the many unanswered questions about the avowed anarchist responsible for McKinley's death. In her quest, Alice drags St. Clair from grim Bowery bars to the elegant parlors of New York's ruling class, from the haunts of the Chinese secret societies to the magnificent new University Club, all while embarking on a tentative romance with a family friend, the son of a prominent local household.
And while Alice, forced to challenge those who would stop at nothing in their greed for money and power, considers her uncertain future, St. Clair must come to terms with his own past in Alice and the Assassin, the first in R. J. Koreto's riveting new historical mystery series.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this uneven series launch from Koreto (Death on the Sapphire), the assassination of William McKinley has elevated Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency and given his 17-year-old daughter, Alice, Secret Service protection provided by 30-year-old Joseph St. Clair, a former Rough Rider. In the winter of 1902, St. Clair allows the headstrong girl still living in New York City under the nominal control of her aunt to indulge her curiosity by visiting notorious anarchist Emma Goldman. Though the government's investigation says otherwise, Goldman insists that Leon Czolgosz, recently executed as McKinley's assassin, could not have acted without outside guidance. Afraid that the same shadowy adversaries might threaten the new president as well, Alice and St. Clair scour Manhattan from teeming Chinatown to the elite University Club in search of the truth. The plot can feel strained, and Koreto's Alice is more often rude and entitled than enjoyably feisty. But the premise and the depictions of the turn-of-the-century Manhattan melting pot shine, heralding a promising series.)
