Critics have lauded Cordelia Frances Biddle's historical series featuring heiress Martha Beale. The indomitable heroine returns in Without Fear when a decapitated corpse is discovered at Joseph Bonaparte's palatial estate near Philadelphia. A vanished wife, a former actress with an agonizing secret, and a mill worker accused of murder reveal the dark and convoluted connections between wealth and poverty, and the tenuous link between grief and joy.
Cordelia Frances Biddle on her Famous Lineage, Love of Research, and the Origins of The Martha Beale Historical Series. For additional insights into Philadelphia's fascinating past, please visit www.CordeliaFrancesBiddle.com
My passion for the early Victorian era that serves as backdrop for the Martha Beale series began with research into my Biddle and Drexel ancestors. Financiers Nicholas Biddle and Francis Martin Drexel were powerful men who shaped the city - and nation's - growth and politics. The 1840s in Philadelphia were tumultuous years. A cultured and educated "elite" confronting grinding poverty, race riots, workers' rights riots and a legal system made obsolete by a rapidly expanding city. Fertile ground for a novelist - especially one with murder on her mind.
Having been raised in a household of strong women, I also needed to make sense of the role of women in the mid-nineteenth century. "Fainting couches" may have been popular articles of furniture, but the women I discovered as I began chronicling my fictional heroine were anything but shrinking violets. Read about Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's Book, if you want an example of a powerful female. In my mind the doughty Sarah was worthy predecessor to Oprah.
As a descendent of the Biddle line historians refer to as "The Romantics" (as opposed to "The Solids"), I see ghosts abounding as I walk our twenty-first century streets. I invite you to journey with me back in time and become a friend of Martha Beale. And do write to me via my website. I love hearing from fans and promise a speedy reply.
