Table of Contents
Praise for the
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT MYSTERY SERIES
Louisa and the Missing Heiress
A historically accurate and entertaining mystery series.
The New York Review of Books
An adventure fit for Louisa May Alcott. A fine tribute to a legendary heroine.
Laura Joh Rowland, author of the Adventures of Charlotte Bront series and the Sano Ichir novels
This thrilling mystery reads like one of Alcotts own blood-and-thunder tales.
Kelly OConnor McNees, author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
Anna Maclean shows us a side of Louisa May Alcott we never suspected in this fascinating new mystery series.
Victoria Thompson, author of the Gaslight Mystery series
[A] lively debut mystery. I was instantly drawn into the characters and culture of America in the late 1880s.
Karen Harper, national bestselling author of The Irish Princess
Maclean has a wonderful grasp of the history, language, and style of nineteenth-century Boston... enough plot twists to keep me entertained until the satisfying conclusion.
The Best Reviews
It was perhaps inevitable that Louisa May Alcott, the pseudonymous author of so many blood-and-thunder tales, would, herself, take up sleuthing. This tale of dark secrets, mysterious men, and heiresses in distress will please any reader who has longed to pursue Jo Marchs sensation stories, those lucrative tales that allowed Beth to go to the seashore, but of which the good Professor Bhaer so stoutly disapproved. As Jo herself might say, a thumping good read.
Joanne Dobson, author of Death Without Tenure
This novel reveals that my great-great-aunt had a secret career that none of us knew about. Its great fun and a pageturner, and it uses the morals and mores of the time and place to delightful effect.
John Pratt, heir to the Alcott Estate
Great fun.... Maclean has done a wonderful job of capturing Alcotts voice and style.... I suspect the real Alcott would have liked it and wished she had written it herself.
Woman Writers Magazine
Readers will find themselves enthralled with the details of Louisas life, family, and friends, as well as with the expertly crafted mystery... promises to be a wonderful new series.
Romance Readers Connection
A great debut thats appropriate for all ages.
Mystery Scene
Louisa and the Country Bachelor
Anna Maclean has created an entertaining period piece around Louisa May Alcott and her adventures as an amateur sleuth before she becomes a well-known author.... Those readers who enjoy mysteries set in the past, like the Irene Adler series, will want to add this series to the list of their must reads.
Roundtable Reviews
Louisa and the Crystal Gazer
In Louisa and the Crystal Gazer, Louisa continues to grow as a character.... This self-growth and self-awareness help keep the book from becoming simply another historical cozy.... By relying on her own personal strengths and those of family and friends, Louisa has the ability to find the criminal regardless of the circumstances.
Reviewing the Evidence
FOR
TOM NEWTON
AND
MARY K. CLAPP
Acknowledgments
AGAIN, AND ALWAYS, heartfelt thanks to my husband, Steve Poleskie, for his faith in me, his support, his humor and goodwill. Thanks also to my steadfast agent, Esmond Harmsworth, who was my compass and my guide in this process. And thanks to my perceptive and gracious editor, Ellen Edwards.
Dunreath Place
Roxbury, Massachusetts
February 1887
Gentle Readers,
I had a letter from an old friend recently. She asked if I remembered Dot and if I had ever thought of writing her story. She is too kind to say outright but she gently reminded me that youth is far behind and that what I am going to write, I should perhaps write now, and quickly. The letter seemed an omen, for that same day Father had sat up in bed and asked if I had heard from Dorothy Brownly recently. His mind wanders and he thought, that morning, that I was perhaps on my way to one of those girlhood afternoon activities that occupied my younger years.
In my youth, I struggled to write and publish stories. Now I am known and I may even admit beloved. In the streets of Concord I cannot even mail a letter or purchase yarn without being recognized. That is one of the joys of age and success, though I admit to occasionally yearning for those younger days when I could walk the streets anonymously. A certain anonymity no doubt assisted the events of which I now wish to write. While I have never shied away from telling my readers about my family and my childhood, I havein part because of the deepest personal reservationskept silent about many of what used to be called my adventures. In part from modesty, and a wish not to hurt the living, I have kept secret many of the most interesting years of my life, years in which I found myself in the curious role of lady detective.
I do find myself reticent, however, I who have already revealed so much of my life in my fictional works. What mother would wish to reveal to her sweet children that their beloved author, Louisa May Alcott, had knowledge of crime and criminals, and deeds so dastardly that if known they would require a night-light to burn in the hall? Yet knowledge of them I had. For many years of my life, I found myself surrounded by unexplained death and unexpected danger, as well as holding the unusual and unmerited position of being the only person able to reach a satisfactory conclusion to the mysterious events.
I have decided to go through my diaries and reconstruct the events of some of these years. These, then, are the other stories of my youth, of friends and foes who chanced across my path, sometimes gracing it, sometimes causing such distress I would fall into the Slough of Despond and doubt all, even the words on a white page. I begin with the story of my dear childhood friend Dot, and her untimely demise.
I trust you may gain some enjoyment through the reading of these tales.
Louisa May Alcott
Prologue
Listen then, replied the count, and perhaps you too may share in the excitement of those about you. That box belongs to Josephine...
I PAUSED, pen in hand, and scratched out the name. It simply did not suit her. I considered following Shakespeare, knowing that my heroine would be as enticing with whatever name God gave her, until I realized that, surely, no reader would become entranced with the ladys plight were she named Maud or Jo.
Josephine wont do, I said. People would be calling her Jo, and this woman is most definitely not a Jo. Jo is a homespun name, tomboyish and striving, not given over to frivolity or melodrama. This woman needs a name that is more Italianate, more romantic. Beatrice. Yes, thats it.... And her rival shall be Therese.
Nay, not so strange as one may fancy, Arthur, said his friend, for it is whispered, and with truth, I fear, that she will bestow the hand so many have sought in vain upon the handsome painter yonder. He is a worthy person, but not a fitting husband for a truehearted woman like Beatrice; he is gay, careless, and fickle, too. I fear she is tender and confiding, loving with an Italians passionate devotion, if he be true, and taking an Italians quick revenge, if he prove false.
![Alcott - Louisa May Alcott: [a personal biography]](/uploads/posts/book/163779/thumbs/alcott-louisa-may-alcott-a-personal-biography.jpg)
