Fatal Induction

January 30, 2012
President McKinley’s assassination casts a pall over Pajer’s somewhat unfocused second mystery featuring electrical engineering professor Benjamin Bradshaw (after 2011’s A Spark of Death). In September 1901, Bradshaw is working on an entry for a competition, developing a telephonic system to relay music from the Seattle Grand Theater to area homes, until the discovery of an abandoned gypsy peddler’s horse and wagon in the lane behind his house. Both the peddler, who sold patent medicines, and his 10-year-old daughter are missing. Soon Bradshaw is investigating not only the girl’s possible kidnapping but her father’s murder as well as the source of dangerously adulterated patent medicines. A surfeit of story lines muddles the main action, but Bradshaw will win readers over as he puts his own life and his friendship with Det. James O’Brien in jeopardy in pursuit of the truth. Author tour.

March 15, 2012
A college professor enters a contest and dabbles in a murder investigation. Benjamin Bradshaw, Professor of Electrical Engineering, has moved to Seattle at the dawn of the 20th century to shield his young son from the stigma of his mother's suicide. Before the semester begins, Bradshaw, who's entered a contest for a telephonic system that will deliver music from the Seattle Grand Theater directly to people's homes, is caught up in a mystery. Why is an abandoned gypsy peddler's cart in the lane behind his house, and where are the father and child who were living in it? Soon enough, the body of the father is found nearby and Bradshaw learns that his own son has been harboring the little girl, a possible witness to murder who runs away when Bradshaw sees her. Despite warnings from his old friend Detective O'Brien to keep out of the case, Bradshaw follows a trail into dangerous areas of town full of bars, brothels and assorted criminals. The dead peddler, who was not in fact a gypsy, had sold a tonic with dangerous ingredients that involve the professor in a federal investigation into adulterated patent medicine. After his gold fever abates, Bradshaw's best friend Henry suddenly returns to a town already on edge since the shooting of President McKinley, and Henry's niece Missouri is determined to convince Bradshaw that she's not too young for him. Nothing daunted, Bradshaw uses his electrical expertise in a plan to trap a ruthless killer. The second in Pajer's Professor Bradshaw series is more slowly paced than his debut (A Spark of Death, 2011). Even so, the historical tidbits and information on early electrical inventions keep it interesting.

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March 1, 2012

People in 1901 Seattle are quick to dismiss the death of a gypsy peddler as not important, but Professor Bradshaw knows the dead man's young daughter is desperately in need of protection. At the same time, Bradshaw has entered a "musical telephone" contest that just might generate a tool (wiretapping comes to mind) he and the police can use for spying on the suspected bad guys. Bradshaw's scientific curiosity propels his interest in solving crimes, and this systematic intensity helps drive his investigating. Since the seamy side of society isn't too impressed by the professor's sleuthing, he is lucky to have friends and family with the necessary street smarts. VERDICT Pajer's second series entry (after A Spark of Death) shines brightly, bringing a real sense of scientific inquiry and wonder to the turn-of-the-20th-century historical. Her ability to weave together technology and emotion (particularly the connection between Bradshaw and his son) makes for an engaging series. YA appropriate.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Benjamin Bradshaw (A Spark of Death, 2011), professor of electrical engineering in Seattle, is working hard to win a competition to create a remote-access sound system for the Grand Theater. It is 1901, and President McKinley has just been assassinated, leaving the nation shocked and mourning. There is, however, a mystery closer to home that unfolds when Bradshaw discovers an abandoned peddler's cart behind his house. It appears that a small child and her father were living in the cart. When Bradshaw learns that the child may be a murder witness, he begins searching for her in the seedy bars and brothels of Seattle's underworld. As he investigates, he uncovers power struggles and corruption in the police department and decides to use his contest entry as a trap to catch the killer and protect his family. Bradshaw's engineering and forensic skills offer readers a glimpse at life during the early twentieth century, including both the social unrest and the excitement over new scientific and technological discoveries. A fine choice for historical-mystery buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)