Customer Reviews

Without Fear: A Martha Beale Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this series. In this book, I really liked the mystery. However, I disliked Martha Beale intensely. Usually the opposite is true, the mystery leaves a bit to be desired, but the characters save the book.

I also find it difficult to recommend the series as a whole because there are too many unresolved story lines. I was willing to overlook the ending of Deceptions Daughter which left what I felt was a major storyline unfinished because I was sure she'd pick the story up in the next book. However, that was not to be the case.

Overall these are well written, and I'm sure I will read the next book in the series. However, if the author does not address the drowned woman from Deceptions Daughter, I may have to abandon this series.

Cordelia Frances Biddle's Martha Beale series is wonderful. She places the reader squarely in the midst of a lesser-known period in American history, and creates characters who are true to their environment and highly compelling. Martha Beale is a remarkable protagonist, richly detailed and fully human. She's a woman who's at once pragmatic, romantic and courageous. In WITHOUT FEAR, she literally saves the life of her friend, the former actress, Becky Grey, who first made an appearance in DECEPTION'S DAUGHTER. Addressing issues of social injustice is clearly part of the author's motivation, which gives the series additional vitality and life. I eagerly await the next installment in Martha's story.

A long awaited read. I loved the first 2 Martha Beale novels and was desperately awaiting the third. I love how the characters have evolved and can't wait for the next book in the series. On the second page you have traveled to 1843 and are walking beside Martha as she finds love and death. A truly spectacular read!

This third Martha Beale historical mystery, like the first two, draws us deeply into 19th-century Philadelphia, contrasting Martha's privileged world with that of the rest of 19th-century American society. In so doing, Biddle deftly tells us something about economic and class disparities in our own time as well. In this installment, Martha continues to develop as a character, displaying her humanity and innate sense of justice as well as her personal weaknesses and class blindness. As you are drawn more deeply into her world, and into the immediate and compelling mysteries that she is drawn to solve, you will find yourself quite unable to put the book down, and perhaps even, like me, talking to Martha, wanting to be by her side, giving her the friendship and support and guidance she so needs, for she was a motherless child and, as we learned in the first book, is now fatherless as well. You will love this remarkable young woman's spunk and fearlessness in the face of the ignorance and prejudice about the role of women in society which were the reality of her time and place. You will also love the vivid and immediate evocations of the streets of Philadelphia, from Society Hill to Southwark, Manayunk to Chestnut Hill. Flawlessly written and meticulously researched, Ms. Biddle's historical fiction is time-travel at its very best. We eagerly await the continuation of Martha's adventures!

Without Fear, the third in the Martha Beale series, opens in a snowstorm; by the end of the first chapter you're firmly rooted in the gritty reality of mill workers, breathing the noxious air of 19th century Philadelphia, with your ill-shod feet freezing in the bitter cold. Biddle does a great job with differences in texture - satins and velvets against cheap cotton - that make deeper meanings of class and privilege easily felt and understood. This is an exciting tale of evil versus good where people, places, and things are not what they seem. And Martha is a wonderfully intrepid detective, firmly placed in her time but with a bright modern mind that keeps you with her every minute.

This is a wonderfully written and meticulously researched novel. The third book in this series, and it more than lives up to the beauty and passion Biddle created with the first two Martha Beale novels. I recommend this highly to anyone who loves historical fiction and stylish writing.

This book, the third featuring Martha Beale, is a well told and atmospheric tale of 19th century Philadelphia. Biddle embraces the dark side of life, much as Anne Perry does, covering in this novel spousal abuse and a headless corpse. The narrative is tight and well focused and the main character is wonderful - smart, intuitive and best of all, believably of her time period. The plot as well as the characters are indelible. If you enjoy historical mysteries at all, give this one a try.