Must The Maiden Die (Seneca Falls Historical Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Miriam Grace Monfredo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

The brilliant new novel in the prestigious mystery series that combines fascinating American history, the early women's rights movement...and murder.

Basing her Seneca Falls mystery series on actual historical events, Miriam Grace Monfredo has received critical acclaim for her vivid depiction of nineteenth-century America, when women, abolitionists, and other social reformers fought to reshape the nation...

In the spring of 1861, only whispers of the Civil War are heard in New York state, until Seneca Falls's librarian Glynis Tryon tries to save an indentured servant girl from a murder charge--and gets tangled in a tapestry of lust, high treason, and legal treachery that brings the stark reality of the growing Civil War close to home...

* The last Seneca Falls mystery, The Stalking-Horse, was named One of 1998's Best Adult Mysteries for Young Adults by the Voice of Youth Advocacy, and received a "Best" Review in Library Journal's Young Adult Section

* Sixth in the highly acclaimed and successful series

"Written beautifully, richly satisfying both to the head and to the heart." --Anne Perry

"The genius of Monfredo is to teach 'herstory' while absorbing the reader in a good old-fashioned mystery."--Newsday

"A marvelous eye to historical detail...If you have not read this author, then you are missing out."--The Merchant of Menace

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Feminist Glynis Tryon (The Stalking Horse, etc.), is back in a new addition to the Seneca Falls historical series. As beautiful as the typical Victorian heroine, she's also a great deal more independent and effective. In the spring of 1861, while the rest of the country is wrapped up in the Civil War's opening volleys, the residents of the small city in upstate New York are more worked up over a local murder. Wealthy businessman Roland Brant has been found dead in his home. Thinking a woman's touch would be helpful in interviewing the family, the police constable, long besotted with Tryon, asks for her help. She finds plenty of possibilities, including an invalid wife and two problematic sonsAone hostile and the other drunk. But what intrigues her most is the kitchen maidAyoung, pretty and muteAwho vanished the day of the murder. Could she have had something to do with the crime? Monfredo spins a clever, suspenseful tale that involves gun-smuggling and sexual abuse. She's at her best pulling plot twists out of actual events. Her research is evident on every page. She falters, however, when it comes to characterization: some of her players seem to exist only to make a historical point. Others have unlikely 20th-century attitudes (one conversation about gun control is absurdly anachronistic) that keep the period from snapping to life. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

As the Civil War begins in 1861, Glynis Tryon, Seneca Falls, New York, librarian and amateur sleuth, meets a woman seeking her lost daughter. Meanwhile, Glynis' cousin Emma fears losing her independence in marriage, and a rich Seneca Falls merchant is brutally murdered. When the lost girl becomes the prime suspect in the merchant's murder, Glynis joins forces with her niece, treasury agent Bronwen Llyr, and Constable Cullen Stuart to find the real killer. In this fifth Glynis Tryon novel, Monfredo, a former research librarian, continues to develop an engaging cast of characters. Overcoming a sluggish opening, the story features a hard-to-solve mystery, some suspenseful courtroom scenes, intriguing Civil War background, and engaging cameo appearances by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Readers of historical mysteries set in the nineteenth-century U.S.--Gillian Linscott's series starring suffragist Nell Bray, among others--are sure to like this one. John Rowen

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 366 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425166996
• ISBN-13: 978-0425166994
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,789,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful historical series, August 22, 2000

By 

Redmond Family "RF" (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Must the Maiden Die (Seneca Falls Historical Myster) (Paperback)

This is one of a series of historical novels based in the years immediately prior to the Civil War. Glynis Tryon, the protagonist of all of the novels is an intelligent, independent woman who is a librarian of a small New York town, Seneca Falls. This is an engrossing novel both as a mystery and as a point-of-view story. I would highly recommend it!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's all about the history, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Must The Maiden Die (Seneca Falls Historical Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Once again, Monfredo has delivered a well-researched dose of history to her readers. For me, the mystery has never been the draw to her novels; it's the history. Monfredo gives us a slice-of-life view of the 1860s that is at once maddening (women HAVE come a long way), and intriguing.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it for Fun, and Learn Something Too, December 21, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: Must the Maiden Die (Seneca Falls Historical Myster) (Paperback)

The Civil War is about to get started, and a man is found murdered in Seneca Falls. It turns out that he was connected to illegal gun-running; guns are being bought from England, smuggled thru the port of Oswego, New York, thence to Seneca Falls and eventually to the about-to-secede southern states. A young girl whose father had sold her into indentured servitude to the murdered man is the prime (but wrong) suspect in his murder. Glynis (of course) figures out who really did the murder, and exonerates the maiden.

There is much more in this novel, mystery and suspense and adventure enough to make it a really enjoyable read, and as a bonus, (HISTORY TEACHERS TAKE NOTE!) you learn a bit about American history. Highly recommended!

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