Blackwater Spirits [Paperback]

Miriam Grace Monfredo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996

With her series of books that feature the spirited librarian Glynis Tryon, Miriam Grace Monfredo takes her readers into the life of the small town of Seneca Falls, New York, a microcosm of mid-nineteenth-century America. Seneca Falls Inheritance illuminates the birth of the struggle for the rights of women; in North Star Conspiracy, Glynis is involved in the turbulence resulting from the fact that Seneca Falls was a stop on the "Underground Railway" for escaping slaves. Now Monfredo continues her stirring story of Glynis's life and the country's history. In Blackwater Spirits, Jacques Sundown, the half-Iroquois deputy, is accused of murder, and his trial points up the fear and prejudice felt for Native Americans, while Monfredo, with impeccable historianship, clearly shows the Indians' side of the cultural clash. The author also introduces a young female physician, initially resented not only as an intruder in the jealously guarded male profession, but as a Jew from New York City to boot. And as a seriocomic reflection of the times, the inhabitants of Seneca Falls are aroused, pro and con, by the rage for spiritualism and the passions of the Temperance movement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An excess of Native American lore and romantic complications blunt the impact of Monfredo's third historical mystery featuring Glynis Tryon, librarian in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in the mid-18th century. Glynis and the newly arrived doctor, a young Jewish woman from New York City, overhear a farmer voice fears for his life to Constable Cullen Stuart. Soon the farmer is fatally poisoned, and Cullen enlists Glynis's aid in talking to the farmer's angry widow, who suggests her husband's murder will be followed by others. Soon three more men have died. Suspicion focuses on Cullen's former deputy, Jacques Sundown, known to be present at each murder site. When he is arrested for the murder of a woman, Glynis, who has a strong attachment to the quiet, younger man now living with his mother's people on the Black Brook reservation, resolves to prove his innocence. Clearheaded Glynis's pursuit of Jacques may grate on fans who have admired her stability and judgment in North Star Conspiracy and Seneca Falls Inheritance. Like these, this novel includes a section of historical notes at the end, which provide more detail on the names, places and situations mentioned in the story.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425152669
• ISBN-13: 978-0425152669
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,378,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Glynis Tryon book yet!, August 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blackwater Spirits (Paperback)

This one took a little longer to get into than the first two, but it turned out to be the best of the series so far. Monfredo has mastered the art of foreshadowing without giving away the whole story, and is skilled at throwing in a red herring or two, as well. Her treatment of the tensions between Native Americans serves to illuminate the complexity of Glynis' and Jacques' friendship, and imparts some interesting historical context as well. This is a book that's worth reading again and again.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Page-Turner and Educational Too, July 18, 2000

By 

watzizname "watzizname" (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blackwater Spirits (Paperback)

A rip-roaring good mystery set in the mid-nineteenth century. Gives a good picture of life then, a fair treatment of native Americans, and an eye-opening look at some of the absurd ways women were disrespected in those times.

This is NOT a book written for juveniles or young adults, but anyone in those age groups could read and enjoy it. I would highly recommend it for high school students as an adjunct to an American History course. They might also want to read Monfredo's other Glynis Tryon novels and Kenneth Roberts' Rabble in Arms, Arundel, and others.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extrremely Good Story!, January 18, 2009

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackwater Spirits (Paperback)

Ms. Monfredo's Glynis Tryon historical mystery series is a winner. I am so happy to have discovered it. This is the third book in the series. The series is set in upstate New York in the mid-eighteen hundreds. This series is best read in order as the historical sequencing is very important. In this book there appears to be a particularly intelligent murderer in Seneca Falls as one after another of some of the founding fathers is found dead by apparent accident or natural causes. Glynis and her friends, Sherriff Stuart, the lawyer Merrycroft and a new lady doctor find they have to dig back ten years or so to try to make some sense of it all. There is marvellous historical detail in these books and some real historical figures. This third book is the strongest so far in an unusually strong series. I cannot recommend this wonderful series enough.