Delivering the Truth

February 1, 2016
A 19th-century Quaker midwife discovers unexpected sleuthing talents. Rose Carroll lives with her widowed brother-in-law and his family in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Her beau, Dr. David Dodge, occasionally aids her in such difficult cases as that of Minnie O'Toole, an unmarried woman who refuses to name her child's father. Another hard case is that of Lillian Parry, the spoiled, discontented, and much younger wife of wealthy carriage-factory owner William Parry, who's neglecting her for a mistress. Rose's peaceful life ends when arson destroys several of Amesbury's carriage factories, kills several men trapped inside, and throws a large portion of town out of work. Detective Kevin Donovan asks Rose to keep her eyes open for clues to the arsonist as she travels around town but sternly warns her not to become too involved. But when William Parry's son Thomas is stabbed and Rose's hand-painted knitting needle is identified as the murder weapon, she refuses to heed Donovan's warning and begins sleuthing in earnest. Among the people who give her sage advice is celebrated poet John Greenleaf Whittier, a fellow member of the Society of Friends. Rose's own abilities and a bit of bad luck eventually bring her face to face with a killer. In a departure from her organic farming cozies, Maxwell (Farmed and Dangerous, 2015, etc.) goes back to 1888 to launch a new series combining a highly competent mystery with the requisite period detail.

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April 1, 2016

Rose Carroll is a Quaker midwife in the mill town of Amesbury, MA. It is 1881, and a conflagration started by an arsonist destroys the local carriage factories with several fatalities. Kevin Donovan, the town's police detective, asks for Rose's help in identifying the arsonist by keeping an eye on her community. Then the son of factory owner William Parry is stabbed to death with one of Rose's knitting needles, and Rose's patient, rumored to be Parry's mistress, is murdered, orphaning her newborn child. Rose is determined to find the culprit with the help of her friends, including Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. VERDICT The Agatha Award-nominated Maxwell, who has written numerous cozies (Murder Most Fowl), introduces a series heroine whose struggles with the tenets of her Quaker faith make her strong and appealing. The author also imparts authentic historical detail to depict life in a 19th-century New England factory town. Readers who appreciate the works of Margaret Lawrence and Eleanor Kuhns will relish as well.

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March 15, 2016
Rose Carroll is a Quaker midwife in 1888 Massachusetts in this smart new series from the prolific Maxwell. Rose cares deeply for her patients and is disturbed to learn that the father of a baby she delivered is the husband of another of her expectant patients. A suspected arson at a carriage factory in town kills 12 men, including a family friend, and a police detective asks Rose to let him know of anything she hears. Rose catches a young man trying to set the Quaker meetinghouse on fire during services, but after another murder, this time of a new mother, she worries that the police are on the wrong track. The rules of the Friends, the well-researched midwifery details, and Rose's intrepid loving ways combine to form a fascinating frame for a story that, though well steeped in the 1880s, will appeal to readers of contemporary cozies. The Amish are very different from the Quakers, of course, but this novel uses the same idea of a culture out of the mainstream and may draw fans of Amish mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)