Gilded Gotham Mystery

As a chill sets in on New York City in the winter of 1888, a jewel thief dubbed the Robin Hood of the Lower East Side has been stealing from the city's wealthiest and giving to the poor. Genevieve Stewart-a young woman whose family is part of Mrs. Astor's famed 400 but who has forged a life of her own as a reporter-decides to chase the story, but gets more than she bargained for: a murder victim sprawled in a dark alley in the dangerous Five Points neighborhood. A handsome neighborhood tough comes to her rescue-but when she encounters the same man at a glamorous ball a few nights later, she realizes he's society scion Daniel McCaffrey. Could this be her Robin Hood? When two more murders rock the Knickerbocker world, it becomes apparent that something much more sinister is afoot than a few stolen diamond necklaces. Genevieve is determined to prove that Daniel is Robin Hood-but she's loath to believe he is a killer as well. From the glittering lights of Fifth Avenue to the sordid back alleys of Five Points, the truth is just one murder away.

New York City, Summer 1889. Society girl-turned-investigative journalist Genevieve Stewart and wealthy Daniel McCaffrey have arrived at the docks to see their friends, Rupert and Esmie Milton, off on their honeymoon. But the romantic idyll comes to a screeching halt when a crazed man bursts into their stateroom screaming about demons and drops dead before their eyes. The dead man is Marcus Dalrymple, who had once asked Esmie to marry him-and inside Marcus's pocket, Daniel finds a medallion that they trace to a Lower East Side bar called Boyle's Suicide Tavern. The medallions are prizes given to anyone who spends the night there without dying. Clearly, a visit to Boyle's could prove hazardous, but it may offer the only clue to Dalrymple's death. Genevieve and Daniel barely escape the bar with their lives but learn that the crime could have a connection to the recent disappearance of a sugar baron's daughter. Only after another young man plunges to his death from a rooftop bar-also screaming about demons-do the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together. The clues lead Genevieve and Daniel far from the city's moneyed environs to a reputedly haunted mansion deep in the Bronx. There, they will confront the truth-and the demon at its heart.

As a heatwave engulfs New York in the summer of 1889, the city's top models begin turning up dead, one by one, suggesting the work of a single killer. Society-girl-turned-investigative-journalist Genevieve Stewart is drawn into the case when Beatrice Holler, one of her friend Callie's fellow models, is found with her throat cut. Genevieve and her compatriot, wealthy Daniel McCaffrey, are joined by Callie to seek out the suspects, which leads them to search for answers from the members of the elite, notorious gangsters, and the city's most prominent painters. In an era when London's Jack the Ripper murders have everyone on edge, the police want to keep the killings quiet. But the bodies are piling up as fast as the suspects, and unless the killer is found, the simmering New York summer could boil over into madness.

Spring, 1890. The long New York winter is over, the buds are blossoming, and romance is in the air. But not all's right in Gilded-Age Manhattan. Genevieve, a society journalist, and her fiancé, Daniel, are working with photographer Dagmar Hansen on an investigation into the House of Refuge, a children's workhouse, inspired by Daniel's near incarceration when he was young. Genevieve is also working on her own piece for the Globe about the Sunflower Mission House, which burned down in a suspicious fire. When a blaze consumes Dagmar's studio-and Genevieve barely escapes with her life in another-Daniel urges her to stop her investigation. But Genevieve is determined to finish the story, and her leads take her deep into the heart of the Bowery. When Genevieve suddenly goes missing, Daniel searches the city in a desperate effort to find her. When their new Fifth Avenue home is also set ablaze, Daniel fears the worst. Someone has their sights on Genevieve-and if she can't escape, she could be the next to go up in flames.