Death at  the Fair
As in The Devil in the White City, this yarn takes place in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair, and like in that nonfiction bestseller, murder intrudes on the city's cultural uplift with surprising consequences. Emily Cabot, one of the first female graduate students at the University of Chicago, invites her mother and brother to join her in the city to attend the fair along with her teacher Dr. Stephen Chapman. At the fair, Chapman turns pale as a ghost when he runs into a woman who turns out to be an old flame. When her husband is killed, and Chapman is found by the body, it is up to Emily and a rotating cast of advisers-some recognizable from your history texts, some not-to free him. The novel is well-written and without major flaws.  --manuscript review by Publishers Weekly, an independent organizationA compelling tale of the Chicago World's Fair, complete with history, mystery and a likable heroine.  Against the backdrop of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, McNamara deftly weaves thes of Southern honor, Northern political graft, post-Civil War abolitionist concerns, nascent women's suffrage and tangled familial relationships... In addition to solid pacing and engaging sotrytelling, the plot incorporates historical figures like Frederick Douglass, Mayor Carter Harrison and Eugene Prendergast, nicely balancing historicla exposition with narrative drive ... --Kirkus Discoveries