Death Takes the Lead (Gilded Age Mystery Book 9)

Rosemary Simpson takes an unusual path in her Gilded Age Mystery, Death Takes the Lead. Set in the late 19th century, Simpson’s book puts her characters in a murder environment in a New York theater.

Prudence MacKenzie, socially elite, is a female inquiry lady—“More than one acquaintance had hinted that the late Judge MacKenzie’s daughter might consider following Mrs. Astor’s lead.” But Prudence is an independent woman and does not care about the Astors. Geoffrey Hunter, an ex-Pinkerton Agent, is her partner in Hunter and MacKenzie, Investigative Law.

Simpson brings a bevy of characters into the story within the first chapter. . . Danny Dennis and his hansom cab, retained by the law firm. Prudence’s friend, Lydia Truitt, widowed at 19, often finds herself drawn into the cases by her friend. Benjamin Truitt, Lydia’s father, a cryptographer during the Civil War and blinded then; Clyde Allen, Benjamin’s companion and care taker. Each of these characters is carefully designed with a role in the story with even more to come.

When Lydia invites Prudence to meet her cousin, Septimus Ward, during a closed rehearsal at the Argosy Theater, it is not long before Prudence learns that the invitation is more than just to meet an actor co-starring in a play, Waif of the Highlands. The ladies are placed in the back of the theater, avoiding the attention of Barrett Hughes, the director, producer, and actor in the play, who does not care for an audience during a rehearsal.

In a bar after the rehearsal, Septimus informs Prudence that although Hughes is claiming authorship of the play, Septimus is the real author. And he wants that recognition returned to him. Hughes is not inclined to give it. Septimus admits that he gave the play to Hughes in order to ensure that his love, Flora Campbell, would be given the lead. Prudence recognizes the problem for what it is worth. No proof of the exchange.

It is not long before Simpson brings on her first victim—Septimus Ward. He is discovered in his rooming house dead, having been poisoned. Prudence and Lydia begin their search for the culprit with Geoffrey’s quiet assistance.

As most cozy mysteries would move forward with the main character (Prudence) and her competent assistant (Lydia) following clues, identifying likely murderers, and , dealing with incompetent police personnel, Simpson takes the reader in a different direction and introduces more characters, each important to the plot. Amos Lang, referred to as The Ferret, is an ex-Pinkerton Agent and friend of Geoffrey’s. Vivian Knowles is a doctor who was raped by Barrett Hughes while serving as a nurse during the war.

And yet another character, Gertrude Marrow, an aging ex-vaudevillian now at the theater as a part player and dresser for Flora Campbell, knows there is something odd going on backstage. Nothing escapes Gertrude’s attention.

Lydia meets Gertrude, and with a little bribery, gets herself and Prudence hired as seamstresses at the theater. During a rehearsal, Prudence is sent to the costume room to place material in a trunk for safe keeping, and what does she discover? Another dead body. Hazel Nugent, one of the dressers has been locked in the trunk where she suffocated.

Rumors fly throughout the theater about why Hazel was suffocated in the trunk, but there are too many rumors, not enough facts. While the search continues for Septimus’s murderer and now Hazel’s, the story moves on.

And now an attempted murder. . . during the dress rehearsal, Lydia is tapped to be one of the crowd onstage, but . . . “Nobody saw exactly what it was that came flying through the air, but the sleeve of Lydia’s dress was cut cleanly. Blood began to run cleanly down her arm. . . Lydia collapsed.”

The main characters in a cozy seldom get attacked until the end of the story, and this now puts Lydia out of the picture, except while at home recovering, and only a little more than halfway through the story. But Simpson is not finished with her main characters.

Prudence remains at the theater in her role, watching the actors, stagehands, and dressers, wondering if the guilty party is among them. “The ruffle needed ironing. . . . there was no ignoring the wrinkles.” She leaves the dressing room with the coal scuttle to get coal for the stove that will heat the iron. She returns, heats the stove, and “. . .      she tapped the wooden handle of the closest iron. . . . not too hot to handle. When the wooden cylinder cracked open, the red-hot iron handle burned through the tender skin of Prudence’s right hand. Down to the bone. . . . no one who heard Prudence’s agonized scream would ever forget it.”

Author Simpson has taken the reader into a fog. Who is left to solve the mystery? Lydia is at home; Prudence is at home. Remember some of the earlier characters? The reader will have to guess who takes over to resolve the mysteries.

Although Simpson does bring the murderer to the surface she then turns another corner in this aMAZEing story. The murderer and accomplice are both murdered and the story isn’t even over.

Suffice to say that Rosemary Simpson has written a story that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat and they won’t fall off until the very end.