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Nell Sweeney, governess to Grace, adopted child of the upper class Hewitt family, has successfully solved a couple of murders, and, when actress Virginia Kimball and her maid Fiona are found murdered in Mrs Kimball's Beacon Hill home, the Kimball's coachman prevails upon her to find out who killed his niece, Fiona. Mrs Kimball had been an actress in name only. Her back gate, opening discreetly into an alleyway behind a house on Louisberg Square, was the means of access for many of the wealthy men who visited her over the years. The police, who are even more corrupt than they are today, are just willing to let the deaths appear to be the result of Fiona trying to steal Mrs Kimball's famed diamonds, and being shot in the attempt (while simultaneously shooting Mrs Kimball) Nell, helped by the black sheep scion of the Kimball family, British-educated Dr Will Kimball, carefully researches Mrs Kimball's background and finds that a red book is missing. This red-covered notebook supposedly contained names, dates, and actions of many of the leading men of Boston society. If any of its contents were to be made public, there would be much embarrassment visited on the residents of Beacon Hill. Nell discovers that Virginia Kimball had been blackmailing some of the men mentioned in her red book. She was broke, not having worked in some time, and was living off the fruits of this blackmail. Fiona, who had only recently gone to work for Mrs Kimball, was the go-between who carried the money back to the actress in exchange for a few dollars (her normal salary was $2 a week and she was saving so she could eventually open a small shop). I enjoyed the first two books in the series but this one seems to me to be covering the same ground. Irish immigrant with secrets, illegitimate child, both taken in by the kindly Mrs Kimball, two sons who fought in the Civil War and were imprisoned at Andersonville, one of whom died and the other became a drug addict, the stay at home son who is not very nice, and their adventures in Boston. I'm not sure I will read another in the series, but fans of the historical cozy may well find this one intriguing.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, March 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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