Death in Saratoga Springs

April 28, 2014
In O’Brien’s sedate follow-up to 2013’s Death of a Robber Baron, Pamela Thompson looks into the disappearance of Ruth Colt, a young woman of mixed race whose aunt, Martha Colt, is housekeeper to the powerful Crawford family. Martha believes that wealthy military veteran Jed Crake—a known sexual predator—has killed Ruth. When Crake travels from Manhattan to Saratoga Springs for the summer, Pamela’s teenage ward, Francesca Ricci, goes undercover as a chambermaid there to monitor his activities. Then Crake is murdered, and Francesca is arrested for the crime. As Pamela, boss Jeremiah Prescott, and colleague Harry Miller probe a circle of suspects, including Crake’s hedonistic wife, a vengeful butcher, and an unstable bellboy, they uncover a series of dark secrets reaching back to the Civil War. O’Brien accurately evokes the affluent Saratoga of 1894, but the slow-moving investigation follows a predictable path until a nice, last-minute twist. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

April 15, 2014
During the Gilded Age, the wealthy could, and did, get away with murder. It's 1894. The rich, Southern Crawford family wants New York City attorney Jeremiah Prescott to look into the disappearance of their housekeeper's niece since the corrupt New York police are not interested in looking for a young black girl. Prescott's operatives, former NYPD detective Harry Miller and lovely widow Pamela Thompson, are skilled, in their different ways, in obtaining information. Many clues point to the involvement of Capt. Jed Crake, a decorated Union Army veteran whose bad reputation with women includes at least one rape during the Civil War. Crake, a crude man who's made a fortune in meatpacking, is in ill health. His wife is a much younger former prostitute with a lover of her own. While Pamela and Harry are pursuing their investigations, the Crakes repair for the summer to the Grand Hotel in Saratoga Springs, playground of the rich and famous. Soon after, Crake is found murdered, and a young chambermaid who's a friend of Pamela's is arrested for the crime. The sleuths soon determine that a number of people had reason to kill Crake: his wife, her lover, and several members of the Crawford family, whose hatred of him dates back to the war. As they circulate among the varied denizens of the beautiful summer playground, more and more information comes to light. But will it be enough to reveal the truth? This leisurely second effort in O'Brien's new series (Death of a Robber Baron, 2013, etc.) is short on both ingenuity and psychological tension; it's evidently aimed at history buffs and daydreamers rather than armchair sleuths.

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