Customer Reviews

Beacon Street Mourning: A Fremont Jones Mystery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Doubleday no longer intends to publish series mysteries, and because of this, Fremont Jones has met an untimely end. And because of contractual matters, Day can't take the series to another publisher. So, enjoy this one, folks -- it's the last in the series. It's a real shame!

Over four years ago, Fremont Jones, a prominent young woman in Boston high society, left her home to escape the social pressure fostered on her by the upper crust. She journeyed to San Francisco where she opened up a typing business. On the West Coast, Fremont met the love of her life, Michael Kossoff, a former(?) spy for both the American and Russian governments. They survived the first great twentieth century earthquake in the area and now manage a detective business, the J and K Agency.

While recovering from some recent injuries, Fremont worries about not hearing from her East Coast father. She learns that he is probably dying. Fremont wonders if her detested stepmother Augusta is involved with her dad's failing health. She arranges for her father to go to the hospital and accompanied by Michael, heads east to visit him. While in Boston, Fremont sees her dad rallying. He leaves the hospital only to die from a sudden heart attack. Fremont and Michael investigate Augusta's activities as they expect foul play occurred until someone kills the wicked stepmother.

Dianne Day is one of the better historical mysteries on the market today. Fremont is a great character struggling with gender discrimination in the first decade of the twentieth century. Her independence stamps her as unacceptably strange. BEACON STREET MOURNING is a thought-provoking tale that is an insightful social commentary as well as an in depth character study. Adding to the fun of this novel is that for the the first time in the series, the audience glimpses what drove Fremont to go west young lady. Fans will understand her demons and motives even as new readers search for previous tales in a fabulous series.

Harriet Klausner

Fremont Jones and her partner return to her native city of Boston. Fremont's father is very ill and feared near death. Fremont suspects that her stepmother is behind his illness. She arranges for her father to enter the hospital and then for nurses to attend him and he seems to rally, until one night, he suddenly dies of a heart attack. Unbeknownst to her stepmother, Fremont has been left the bulk of her father's considerable estate which can only lead to more trouble.

This was a really quick read. The author takes you back to Philadelphia in the early 1900's. The story is very quick moving and the characters vivid. The mystery is not difficult, but no less interesting.

This really is the best book in the series. I do so enjoy the Fremont Jones books and I was very sorry to hear that this is the last one. I just started the series at the beginning of the this year and I have read all of them at least twice. Beacon Street Mourning is a wonderful addition to this collection. Get them while you can!!

Those readers who love Fremont Jones mysteries because of the San Francisco setting might be a bit disappointed with this fifth book in the series because it is set in Fremont's home town, Boston. But, I suspect they won't be disappointed for long because this is one of the best (if not the best) crafted mysteries Day has written so far. The twists of the plot are much more compelling and I liked the way in which the book brought the Boston period of Fremont's life to a sad conclusion..

Despite its Boston setting the book does include Michael Archer, Fremont's partner and lover, but he appears infrequently in this book as Fremont Jones reconnects with her father, loses him tragically, and solves the mystery of his death. Fans of Day's earlier works will like this one, too, but if you are new to the series I suggest you begin at the beginning (The Strange Files of Fremont Jones) to fully understand the book.

In Beacon Street Mourning, Fremont Jones, suspicious her ailing father is being neglected by his wife Augusta, returns to Boston to see him. Her father begins to improve, then suddenly dies. Fremont must solve what she believes to be murder by poison, while others, including his doctor, contend that her father died of natural causes. Did an old friend betray Fremont and her father? Did Augusta kill him thinking she would inherit?

I like Fremont's independent spirit. She's true to those special, courageous women of her time who proved to the world that women could be more than decorations. The characterization is superb, and though I'm no historian I believe Ms. Day kept this story true to the era. This is fine writing, in a well-crafted book, that I wanted to read slowly and savor. It was the first I've read of Dianne Day's work, and I have since returned to this author's work.

Boston is one of my favorite cities, and I visit it as often as possible. I was, therefore, very pleased that Fremont Jones decided to return to her native city to visit her ailing father in this latest installment of an excellent series of mysteries. The city itself is almost a character in the plot, and the author has done her homework quite well, for she has the geography of the streets down very well (I know, for I've walked many of them). She even stays at the Parker House, an elegant hotel in Fremont's day, and still an imposing one, where my wife and I stopped for a drink and some snacks one Saturday afternoon two months ago. The plot of the mystery is quite straight forward, and is solved expeditiously by our heroine at the end, as usual. It's a bittersweet book, for Fremont loses her beloved father, but does manage to attain justice, of a sort, at the conclusion. I await anxiously the next installment of her adventures.

Fremont Jones remains a very enjoyable character.

In the latest edition of the series Fremont finally resolves the problem of her father and stepmother that has been bedevilling her since the first entry in the series.

I see that Ms. Day is now beginning a series centered on Clara Barton. Hopefully we have not seen the last of Fremont.

Fremont Jones does not only dislike her father's second wife, Augusta, immensely; she's also always been highly suspicious of her. And so when she gets no response from her father to her letters and telegrams, she enlists one of her father's old banking friends, William Barrett, to discover what is going on. He delivers some very disquieting news: Leonard Jones is gravely ill and is not receiving proper medical attention, and that Augusta seems to be guilty of neglecting her seriously ill husband. Angered and not a little scared, Fremont resolves to go to Boston to investigate matters inspite of the injuries she has sustained from a prevoius misadventure.

Once in Boston, Fremont is dismayed to discover that Augusta has been effectively isolationg Leonard from all his friends and family, and that she has also replaced all the old family servants with one very overworked young girl. Fremont is further dismayed that Augusta has somehow managed to convince Barrett and Dr. Searles Cosgrove, the Jones's family doctor, that Leonard is dying slowly but naturally and that he should be able to do so in peace at home and under her care. What, Fremont wonders, is this power Augusta seems to be able to wield over men?

Leonard Fremont soon dies, and Fremont is angered and frustrated further to discover that she cannot authorise an autopsy. That power lies with Augusta, and she is unlikely to do so. And then a few days after Leonard's death, Augusta is shot to death. In the midst of investigating Augusta's nefarious deeds, Fremont must now expand her investigation in order to discover who could have killed Augusta.

This is a novel that is rich in dark atmosphere. And Dianne Day does a brilliant job in transmitting this darkness that encapsulates the book: Boston in winter; Fremont's fear that she will loose her father; Augusta's graceful and elegant hatefulness, and the thrall with which she seems to hold Barrett, Cosgrove and Fremont's father; and the rigid Boston society into which highly independent and free-spirited Fremont could not fit in. And if the pacing of the book was somewhat uneven -- slow for the most part, and only picking up steam for the last quarter -- this is a fault easily forgiven a well written and highly enjoyable novel.

Fremont Jones knows her stepmother is poisoning her father. The only thing is, no one believes he is being poisoned. If he were, sweet Augusta is the last person anyone would suspect. The doctors poo-poo Fremont, her father's bank partner questions her sanity, and even Michael, Fremont's lover, seems to fall under Augusta's sway.

Dianne Day manages to convey 1908 Boston (the novel starts in San Francisco and moves to Boston) in both physical but especially the social and emotional senses. Fremont is unconventional (being a private detective), yet still bound by conventions. Day's style is a huge part of the book. Although there is certainly some complexity in the mystery, including whether there is a mystery at all, the chief joy in reading BEACON STREET MOURNING is in the reading itself.