Gilded Age Mystery (O'Brien)

Set amidst the glittering enclaves of money, power, and privilege in America's tumultuous Gilded Age, this richly detailed mystery follows private detective Pamela Thompson into an elite world where fortunes are flaunted and scandals are hidden--one body at time... Death Of A Robber Baron New York City, 1891. In the spirit of Christmas, Mrs. Pamela Thompson has devoted herself to charity work, even taking an orphaned child into her Greenwich Village townhome. Her husband Jack, an ambitious banker, agrees to such generous acts as long as his wife allows him to invest his time--and her trust fund--in more lucrative opportunities. But when he risks their entire fortune on questionable copper stocks, Pamela ends up losing everything: her house, her inheritance, and even her husband... Penniless, Pamela is forced to move into a boarding house in the Lower East Side and accept a position at Macy's--as a store detective. Displaying an uncanny knack for the job, she's asked to investigate a private matter of thievery at a palatial "cottage" in the Berkshires. Ironically, her employer is none other than Henry Jennings, the infamous "Copper King" who sold bad stocks to her husband. But when the filthy rich scoundrel is found dead in his study, Pamela holds herself accountable--for sorting out this whole sordid business of money, motives...and murder.

From the slaughterhouses of Manhattan to the elite enclaves of Saratoga Springs, private detective Pamela Thompson follows a trail of death and deception left by a Civil War hero. . . Death In Saratoga Springs New York City, 1894. Captain Jed Crake is a decorated veteran of the Union army and a successful mogul in the meatpacking industry. But this powerful man also has a hidden private life as a predator of young women. Working for attorney Jeremiah Prescott, private investigators Pamela Thompson and former NYPD detective Harry Miller are engaged to search for a maid allegedly abducted by the captain. . . Before they can find the missing woman, Crake's dark history catches up with him and he is murdered in a posh hotel in Saratoga Springs. As fate would have it, Pamela's ward, Francesca Ricci, working as a chambermaid in the hotel, is accused of the crime. Now, in this pastoral playground of the idle rich, it's up to Pamela and Miller to find Crake's killer--as well as his victim--and save an innocent girl from a fate worse than death.

New York City, 1894. The Democratic Party headquarters at Tammany Hall is a hotbed of cronyism, corruption, and intimidation. Private investigator Pamela Thompson's close colleague at Jeremiah Prescott's law firm, former NYPD detective Harry Miller, has had his own career tainted by scandal. Seven years ago, while investigating a case connected to Tammany Hall, he was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of extortion. Miller's conviction continues to cast its long shadow into his current life, so he seeks Pamela's help in exonerating him. The key to uncovering the truth lies with the murder of a cabdriver and a missing portfolio with the potential to incriminate certain city aldermen of taking backroom bribes. But as Pamela and Miller follow the money trail to expose the conspiracy, they find their own lives in jeopardy…