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A Lucy Campion Mystery
by Susanna Calkins
Susanna Calkins has drawn a richly detailed portrait of a time in history and a young woman struggling against the bounds of her society in her next absorbing Lucy Campion mystery.
Lucy Campion, a ladies' maid turned printer's apprentice in 17th-century London, is crossing Holborn Bridge over the murky waters of the River Fleet one morning when, out of the mist, she sees a specter moving toward her. Frightened at first, Lucy soon realizes the otherworldly figure is in fact a young woman, clearly distraught and clad only in a blood-spattered white nightdress. Barely able to speak, the woman has no memory of who she is or what's happened to her. The townspeople believe she's possessed. But Lucy is concerned for the woman's well-being and takes her to see a physician. When, shockingly, the woman is identified as the daughter of a nobleman, Lucy is asked to temporarily give up her bookselling duties to discreetly serve as the woman's companion while she remains under the physician's care.
As the woman slowly recovers, she begins - with Lucy's help - to reconstruct the terrible events that led her to Holborn Bridge that morning. But when it becomes clear the woman's safety might still be at risk, Lucy becomes unwillingly privy to a plot with far-reaching social implications, and she'll have to decide just how far she's willing to go to protect the young woman in her care.
"Calkins deftly evokes period attitudes toward mental illness, but with a pivotal character too impaired to generate much suspense or action, the first half of the story doesn't do justice to Lucy's resourcefulness or the author's full gifts." - Publishers Weekly
"Solid historical mystery, with intriguing hints about the future." - Booklist
"This fourth series entry (after The Masque of a Murderer) stands well on its own. Lucy is a daring young woman who works hard to advance her place in life during a time when women had few options. A nice option for devotees of Anne Rutherford and Samuel Thomas, both of whom write series firmly placed during the same historical period." - Library Journal
This information about A Death Along the River Fleet was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Susanna Calkins became fascinated with seventeenth century England while pursuing her doctorate in British history and uses her fiction to explore this chaotic period. Originally from Philadelphia, Calkins now lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two sons. Visit her at susannacalkins.com
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