Customer Reviews

Seneca Falls Inheritance

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book and the other four Ms. Monfredo currently has out do an extraordinary job of incorporating women's history and lesser-known history into fascinating mysteries. I encourage you to read them in order, starting with this one, because she builds the characters throughout the series.

This book was recommended to me when I recently visited family back east for the first time in many years. I had asked directions,especially wanting to take my 18-year old daughter to the Women's Rights Museum in Seneca Falls on the drive from Seneca Lake to Syracuse. I remembered having seen the small blue sign along the rural highway and always regretting not having turned there. Being a teen in the 60's, I marveled that the consciousness-raising and role changes that were exploding then (and that now have made so many unappreciated opportunities for girls and women) began in the Finger Lakes area where my great grandparents had settled and my parents grew up! This novel recreates that era and makes the instigation of radical activities by Elizabeth Cady Stanton understandable through the description of the female and male character's lives. While an important theme, the women's rights information is peripheral to the main story. Some detail about characters is obvious but not distracting in the intention to prepare the reader for a series. As this is the first of a series written about a time of restricted public behavior for women, Glynis Tryon's cautious hesitance is understandable and realistic as she follows her instincts and intelligence to solve the murder. I have ordered more books in the series, and expect the maiden librarian's confidence to increase, just as we womenfolk each get more uppity as we proceed through life, finding that our feelings and ideas matter and that we can make a difference.
The description of life along the Erie Canal, the foods served at Thanksgiving dinner, the vegetation and weather were surprisingly familiar to me. My elderly father took me into the Post Office in PennYan, N.Y. and showed me the numbered brass mailbox where,as a boy, he used to pick up his father's mail. There is a sturdy practicality common to Upstate New Yorkers that is also captured in Monfredo's characters. She truly conveys the spirit and history of the area.
If you like the book, go visit! Seneca Falls (there really are beautiful falls there) is not far from Corning, N.Y., with a wonderful tour of the Corning Glass Works. Oneida Silver Company is located along Oneida Lake north of Syracuse. Drive west to Rochester and visit Kodak Corporation's informative exhibits. A bit furthertoward Buffalo is the beauty and power of Niagara Falls , where you can don a raincoat to ride the famous Maid of the Mist right into the whirling base of the falls. It was the American Indians in that area who told settlers that the long, clear Finger Lakes (Canadaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, and Cazenovia ) were formed by a swipe of the ancient Great Bear's paw. Although we usually think of bear as fierce, native americans saw him as a wise healer because he knew which plants to eat, and most like man, because he stood on two feet while grazing. A special area, even Joseph Smith had his spiritual experiences that began the Church of Latter Day Saints in nearby Palmyra. The majestic reenactment pageant is attended by more than Mormons each year.
There is more to New York than New York City. The lives of its people are inherent to our American Culture. Enjoy this book; be there!!

Whether you're a devoted mystery reader or just looking for a good book for the train-ride, this novel is worth a look. Glynis Tryon is an interesting protagonist--she's smart, she's kind, and she knows what she wants. In a nutshell, she's the kind of person you'd like for a friend. And Monfredo has a talent for expanding her characters, so that her Seneca Falls is populated by a whole town of people you'll get to know over the next few books, and will always be glad to see again. The next two books, North Star Conspiracy and Blackwater Spirits, are among the best mysteries I've ever read. But if you're going to read any of these books, make sure you start with this one, so that your familiarity with the characters develops along with the whole storyline. (I read North Star first, then had to go back and read this one and North Star again, in order to get the full effect.) This is a wonderful series--if you're at all interested in American history, you absolutely must r! ead these books--and a very good first novel.

This is the first Glynis Tryon novel, and it is a rousing good story set against the background of Seneca Falls, an actual (NOT fictional) small town in the western part of upstate New York, in 1848, the year when the first women's rights convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and others. The convention took place in Seneca Falls.

The main characters of the story are fictional, but many of the minor characters are real people of the time. The historical background is well-researched and mostly accurate. (I can't point to any historical inaccuracy, but even the best historical scholarship is unlikely to produce perfect knowledge of every detail.)

Whether you are just looking for great light reading or for a story that enhances your knowledge of the early history of the women's movement, you'll find it here, and you'll also enjoy the sequels, North Star Conspiracy, Blackwater Spirits, The Stalking Horse, Must the Maiden Die" and others.

NOTE TO HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHERS: These novels, and the novels of Kenneth Roberts (Rabble in Arms, Arundel and several others) provide an excellent means of bringing American history alive for your students, and getting them interested in the subject.

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Monfredo does an excellent job of using history, particularly the women's rights issues, as an integral part of the story. She isn't preachy and you don't need to be a history major to get the point and follow the story. Her use of the same main characters and setting in Seneca Falls makes you feel at home with each book. I find these mysteries a welcome change.

"Seneca Falls Inheritance" is both the story of the birth of the women's suffrage movement in 1848, and the murder of a woman who tried to exercise her economic rights in a world where women were viewed as inferior beings. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the 19th Century's most influential women, makes an appearance at the beginning of her long career in fighting for women's rights; she is joined by the leading fictional character, Glynis Tryon, Seneca Falls' "free thinking" librarian, who will fight her own battles to help discover the identity of a murderer. The plot raises several important issues of both the 19th Century and today: domestic abuse, discrimination, illicit relationships, and how women are judged differently than men when it comes to aggression and tenacity. There's also a hint of romance between Glynis and the town's constable, plus a connection between the librarian and her recently departed patron. This is both an entertaining and informative novel.

Set in Seneca Falls, NY, at the time of the first Women's Rights Convention of 1848, author Miriam Monfredo has chosen a particularly intriguing setting for her mystery series starring librarian Glynis Tryon. Monfredo introduces a lot of information about women's rights, the area and the lifestyle of the times without awkwardness, and the book is readable for that alone. The heroine and her friends are realistic and likeable, though Glynis is definitely not a confident feminist, and I look forward to reading other books in the series to see if this changes. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the most famous resident of the town, is not a main character but she does show up occasionally and that is fun. The mystery is okay but not dazzling, so all-in-all I'd say this was a promising beginning to this series, and I intend to read more.

Seneca Falls NY was the site of the Women's Rights Convention of 1848. Against this backdrop we are introduced to Glynis Tryon, a spinister librarian, who stumbles into a murder mystery. This is a cozy mystery, with most of the mayhem taking place off the pages of the book. An entertaining read, and a very interesting heroine, who chooses to be single, at a time when that was very difficult. The mystery wasn't too difficult to solve, but I enjoyed all the history and the numerous real life people woven into the background of the story. A good first entry in what promises to be an enjoyable series.

What a great idea to set a murder mystery in the middle of the Seneca Falls Convention, an important part of history that hasn't gotten enough press! This is a perfect read for a starry-eyed girl taught that being a woman is about marriage and that marriage is about wedding bells,gowns, shoes, clutches, flowers, an invitation list, and locations. How is it that generation after generation of young women learn the myth but not the reality? Could it be that the myth is extremely lucrative for many a greed-driven enterprise, including the wedding business itself? They need also to become aware as an adult human being of the darker side of their life as a possible target for greed and exploitation. This book, in a simple story, exposes the lurking dark side of such an innocent act as the State of New York's granting to women the right to own and inherit property.

This is a fairly typical murder mystery, set around the events of the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. I enjoyed this mostly because of my familiarity with the Seneca Falls area. The characterizations seemed skin deep, I wanted to know more about the citizens of Seneca Falls and found the mystery aspect of the story less engaging. Historical figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton do wander through the action of the book, but I would have liked the Convention to be more central to the plot; instead it is just something else that happens to be going on at the same time.
I will probably read further in this series as I find the period and locale interesting.