A March to Remember

August 8, 2016
Loan-Wilsey’s fifth Hattie Davish mystery (after 2015’s A Deceptive Homecoming) takes the reader on a fascinating journey into America’s past. In March of 1894, private secretary Hattie Davish accompanies her employer, Sir Arthur Windom-Green, an American-history scholar, on a research trip to Washington, D.C. They arrive at the same time that thousands of unemployed workers known as Coxey’s Army march on the U.S. Capitol to present their grievances. After Jasper Neely, one of the marchers, is fatally stabbed in the neck during a confrontation with the police, Hattie discovers that Neely sought to blackmail some powerful Washington politicos, one of whom may be Sir Arthur’s friend. The plot unravels at the end with a couple of implausible coincidences, but Hattie is an endearing, stalwart heroine, and Loan-Wilsey skillfully evokes time and place. Those who like their mysteries mixed with history and a little romance will be pleased. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.

July 15, 2016
March 1894 finds the nation's capital anxiously anticipating the arrival of Coxey's Army.Hundreds of unemployed men have marched from Ohio and even farther away to demand that Congress pass a bill that would create government jobs to help the suffering masses. But the Washington establishment is largely unwilling to listen. Hattie Davish, secretary to renowned historian Sir Arthur Windom-Greene, is staying with her employer in the home of Senator and Mrs. Smith while doing research on the Civil War. On the way to the train station to meet the love of her life, Dr. Walter Grice, Hattie, passing through a street of brothels, sees a young woman sunning herself on a balcony. After accepting Walter's proposal of marriage, she sees the same young woman removed from the store where Hattie's shopping for her trousseau. Her last sighting is when the woman is thrown from a carriage into a carp pond and drowns while the driver flees the scene. While trying to hear Coxey give his speech at the Capitol grounds, Hattie's beaten by the police and arrested for the murder of Jasper Neely, a member of Coxey's Army who'd helped her search the carp pond. The police, aware of her reputation (A Deceptive Homecoming, 2015, etc.), release her and warn her against sleuthing, but Hattie's already picked up too much information from Washington bigwigs to ignore the two murders. Sen. Smith, his nasty spoiled son, and even her prospective brother-in-law are just a few of the people Hattie suspects as she attempts to solve the crimes and keep her personal life from spinning out of control. The weak mystery is offset by fascinating period detail and some illegal, immoral, and just plain outrageous political shenanigans.

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