Through a Gold Eagle
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The year is 1859. The nation is divided over slavery, with abolitionists spearheading a relentless - and violent - plan of attack. And in Seneca Falls, New York, the federal crime of counterfeiting adds up to a deadly account of deceit, injustice, and murder. After a year in Springfield, Illinois, Glynis returns home with Emma, her shy, seventeen-year-old niece. Emma's only joy comes from sewing and playing the dulcimer - and little else since her mother died. Glynis hopes that a change of scene will help young Emma's spirits. But as their train journeys from Rochester to Seneca Falls, a passenger is fatally stabbed right before their eyes. Before he dies, the victim hands Glynis a pouch containing a signet ring, a crumpled bank note, and a twenty dollar gold eagle coin.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Monfredo (The Seneca Falls Inheritance, etc.) scores with another compelling mid-19th century mystery starring librarian/feminist Glynis Tryon. The sinuous plot skillfully incorporates significant political and social changes of the time, from women's suffrage to banking reform and Isaac Singer's revolutionary sewing machine. In May 1859, after a year's visit with her brother's family in Illinois, Glynis returns to Seneca Falls, N.Y., bringing along her niece Emma. A man is murdered on their train shortly after handing her a pouch containing money and a ring and mentioning Seneca Falls. Back home, Glynis is absorbed in a variety of problems: her assistant has wasted library funds on romance novels; counterfeit money and weapons thefts are rife; seven more people die; and her old swain, Sheriff Cullen Stuart, has a new lady friend. Monfredo deftly gathers these subplots into a coherent tale that leads to a finale in a panther den. There, Glynis corners the mastermind responsible for the crimes, solving a case which is tied to funding John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry and to attempts by abolitionists and the English to hasten a civil war. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass and John Brown appear but don't overshadow the commanding cast of fictional characters, including a new romantic interest for Glynis.
