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An Eliza Hamilton Mystery
by Mollie Ann Cox
Could Alexander Hamilton be at the center of a vast murder plot engulfing Old New York? As his widow, Eliza, pieces together the puzzle, she unearths a heartbreaking secret that threatens to tear her family apart.
New York, 1804. America's beloved Alexander Hamilton lies dead after a duel with Aaron Burr. Meanwhile, Eliza Hamilton's eighteen-year-old son, Alexander Jr., was seen fighting with a man in a tavern the night before his father's duel and quickly comes under suspicion for murder when the man turns up dead.
Eliza searches for ways to clear her son's name, even as she is grieving, but as she combs through her late husband's papers, she finds evidence of a plot to steal money from the government during his tenure as secretary of state. Hamilton was accused of stealing that money, and it was a scandal that almost broke the family—but is Eliza now holding proof of Alexander's innocence?
Deep in debt and despair, with eight children to support, Eliza turns to selling her handmade lace—and is drawn into a mysterious network of widow lacemakers who are intimately connected to New York's high-society families. They know their dead husbands' secrets—and soon, Eliza begins to piece together the truth.
There's a dark plot connected with the duel, as one by one, witnesses to the bout are being killed. Now, Eliza must not only clear her husband's and son's names but keep herself out of the killer's sights.
Perfect for fans of Sherry Thomas and Deanna Raybourn, taking us from the city's gilded mansions to its meanest streets, Mollie Ann Cox's debut historical mystery transports readers to center stage in a time of grave political danger.
"Brilliant ... Cox plausibly recreates 19th-century New York without freezing it in amber, and wrings real emotion out of Eliza's investigation."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Wish there was a sequel starring the Founding Father's widow? Cox has you covered ... You'll cheer the righteous heroine through thick and thin."
—Kirkus Reviews
"A good mystery ... Provide[s] a window into the precarious plight of widows and single women in the early years of the new republic."
—Booklist
"Wonderfully steeped in the sights and sounds of early 1800s New York City, this novel places the newly widowed Eliza Schuyler Hamilton and her clever friend Alice at the center of a compelling mystery with its roots in a conspiracy to blame Hamilton for money missing from the Treasury ... The talented, courageous Eliza is a heroine to root for!"
—Karen Odden, USA Today bestseller and award-nominated author of the Inspector Corravan Mysteries
"It's a constant frustration to historians that women's lives are comparatively absent from the record, but here's a silver lining! Mollie Ann Cox has fitted a deft murder mystery into the few weeks following the death of Eliza Hamilton's famous husband. Delicious historical detail and a heroine of tremendous verve. What a treat."
—Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of the Dandy Gilver mysteries and In Place of Fear
This information about The Lace Widow 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.
Mollie Ann Cox is the author of several popular mystery series, also writing under the pen name Maggie Blackburn. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman's World. The Lace Widow is the first time she's combined her passion for history and mystery. She makes her home at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Crozet, V.A.
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