Review: Good History, Interesting Murder Mystery
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 19, 2012
The story starts out with the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. It then shifts to three years later and the murder of magazine publisher Martin Van Zandt. The local Salem police routinely dismiss the murder as a burglary gone bad.  His adopted daughter, Samantha,  believes there is more to it than that; the five members of the magazine's board of directors all have good reasons for wishing Van Zandt dead. She elicits the help of Van Zandt's nephew, journalist James Christopher,  to look further into the matter.A love interest quickly develops between Samantha and Christopher, despite her being married to a rather brutish and uncaring husband. Samantha is a "modern woman" with ideas about women's rights and the place that women should have in society. James is sympathetic to her ideas.  Too often authors place the ideas and ideals of the 21st century into characters of the 19th century, but it is not done in too heavy handed a manner in this novel.There are some clever insights into 1884 Boston/Salem.  James is one of the first people to get the new telephone invention installed in his house. He muses that it would be a good idea to have a book of people's names and telephone numbers. Perhaps if more people have this novelty device installed, that will happen. Later in the book, there is some very interesting information on the doctor's attempts to save President Garfield's life.  Alexander Graham Bell invented a device to locate the bullet but it failed. No one realized that Garfield was lying on a newly invented box spring mattress whose metal springs caused the failure of the metal detector.A good mystery and clever insights to the 1880s make this a very interesting and enjoyable read.