Mariah Fredericks’ mysteries featuring lady’s maid Jane Prescott are rich in the cultural issues of New York during 1910-1913. At the same time, they’re engrossing mysteries with an observant young woman familiar with several social classes. In Death of an American Beauty, Jane has to step out of her comfort zone to find a killer who is striking close to home.

Jane is fortunate in her employer. When Louise Benchley married William Tyler, Jane went to the Tyler household. She’s appreciated there, and even has a week’s vacation. Her first plans are to attend the scandalous art exhibit at the Armory where the International Exhibition of Modern Art features Cubists. She runs into a friend, Michael Behan, a reporter for the Herald who is there to cover the reaction of ordinary people. But, Michael’s a little surprised when she says she’s off to spend the evening at her uncle’s refuge where women could learn skills. She’s heading to the Southern Baptist Ladies’ Cotillion, otherwise known in the refuge as “the Whores’ Ball”, no men allowed.

But, the Lower East Side is being gentrified, and Clementine Pickett isn’t happy with the refuge, although it has been there for years. While she and her group of supporters protest in front of the refuge, rival protestors are across the street. And, everyone seems to be there when the body of Sadie, one of the girls, is found brutally murdered in the alley. Everyone’s there except Jane’s uncle, the Reverend Tewin Prescott. It doesn’t take long for Mrs. Pickett to accuse the reverend of killing Sadie. When a former resident is also murdered, the outcry only gets worse. If the police aren’t going to hunt for the real killer, Jane will. She knows it’s not her uncle, although he won’t provide an alibi.

It may be Jane’s vacation, but she’s spending the time on everyone but herself. She’s assisting her employer, Louise, at Rutherford’s, a high-class department store where women can shop, “Where every American Beauty blooms.” Louise is participating in a pageant celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a pageant that accompanies the annual hunt for “Miss Rutherford”, and Jane is altering costumes.

Fredericks brings back a few familiar characters, but introduces some new ones, include a pianist/composer, Leo Hirschfeld, who is playing for the pageant, and a former resident, Otelia Brooks, who impressed Jane even when Jane was only eleven. Both of these characters introduce Jane to parts of New York, and stories of the city, that she did not know.

From the Lower East Side to high-class department stores, from Harlem to gangster clubs, Mariah Fredericks creates an atmosphere that brings this period and the city to life. She doesn’t hesitate in any of the three books in the series to address issues of classism, racism and prejudice. And, for those who have been following the series, the epilogues in the books are enticing glimpses into the life of Jane Prescott.

Fredericks’ Death of an American Beauty is a well-researched, complicated historical mystery with an intriguing, determined amateur sleuth. Anyone who appreciates mysteries whose atmosphere is created by the stories of the people and social classes should try these books.

Mariah Fredericks’ website is www.MariahFredericksBooks.com

Death of an American Beauty by Mariah Fredericks. Minotaur Books, 2020. ISBN 9781250210883 (hardcover), 259p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.

Note: Death of an American Beauty is a new release, available in bookstores. However, if your public library subscribes to Overdrive for ebooks and eaudios, this title, and the earlier ones in the series, might be available through your public library. As I’ve mentioned before, public libraries purchase the rights to share these books with our users.