Eleanor and the Cold War
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4.1 • 9 Ratings
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Publisher Description
A brilliant 1950s Cold War historical mystery debut a female sleuth who is also an indispensable assistant to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Perfect for fans of Colleen Cambridge and Agatha Christie.
New York City and Washington, DC, 1951.Kay Thompson—secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt—is a young woman of conviction navigating the post-World War II period. But can she expose the dark truth about a transatlantic murder mystery unfolding before her eyes?
Previously fired for speaking out against workplace injustices, twenty-five-year-old Kay Thompson finds her true calling once appointed to support Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of human rights known as ER among those in her inner circle. Kay fully embraces her new role as the former First Lady’s right hand—typing up daily columns and juggling a blur of political meetings, ribbon cuttings, and charitable dinners. It’s not until a dead body is discovered on a train that her most compelling task comes into focus . . .
Stunning Susie Taylor had star quality. Judging from her photos, it’s clear why she left Sweden with plans to make it big on Broadway. But when ER enlists Kay’s help on a discreet investigation about her sudden disappearance, the two suspect the up-and-comer was concealing secrets about her real identity and motives—all leading to her murder at Washington’s Union Station . . .
Plunged into a living Alfred Hitchcock film, an unseasoned Kay and a shrewd ER side with a handsome detective on a search for answers. What was Susie’s connection with a charismatic Soviet UN delegate and an atomic energy researcher? As ER makes it her mission to find out, danger looms upon the discovery of another body. Now, Kay must play a central role in exposing the killer—before she becomes the next rising beauty to meet a cruel fate . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The pseudonymous Yardley debuts with an exciting historical series launch featuring former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1951, Susan Meyer is found dead in a train car bathroom in Washington, D.C. Roosevelt was scheduled to meet Susan—the daughter of her friend, German scientist Elsa Meyer—at Union Station and discuss why she's been absent from work for the last several weeks. Instead, Roosevelt finds a crime scene, which rattles her 25-year-old secretary, Kay Thompson, more than the former first lady herself. Distrustful of the police assigned to handle the case, Roosevelt pursues her own inquiry into Susan's death, with Kay's help. The pair's investigation soon uncovers a shadowy network of men passing atomic secrets between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and their propensity for using and abandoning beautiful women. Kay is a spirited reader surrogate, and Yardley makes clever use of historical figures including JFK and journalist Lorena Hickok, who was rumored to be Roosevelt's lover. Roosevelt is the book's center of gravity, however, and Yardley renders her beautifully: tested by loss and personal pain, politically savvy, and attuned to the suffering at the mystery's core, she's an unforgettable sleuth. This series is off to a strong start.
