31 BOND STREET

31 BOND STREET by Ellen Horan was read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010.

From the book jacket:

Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell?


Though there are no witnesses and no clues, fingers point to Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed Burdell's house and his servants.  Rumored to be a black-hearted gold digger with designs on the doctor's name and fortune, Emma is immediately put under house arrest during a murder investigation.  A swift conviction is sure to catapult flamboyant district attorney Abraham Oakey Hall into the mayor's seat.  But one formidable obstacle stands in his way:  the defense attorney Henry Clinton.  Committed to justice and the law, Clinton will aid the vulnerable widow in her desperate fight to save herself from the gallows.


Set in 1857 New York, this gripping mystery is also a richly detailed excavation of a lost age.  Horan vividly re-creates a tumultuous era characterized by a sensationalist press, aggressive new wealth, a booming real-estate market, corruption, racial conflict, economic inequality between men and women, and the erosion of the old codes of behavior.  A tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics, this spellbinding narrative transports readers to a time that eerily echoes our own.

A good book.  I didn't realize until reading the Author's Note that this was based on an actual story, with the author adding some characters and story lines of her own.

The book began with the murder, then moved between the months before the murder to the months after the murder and the trial of Mrs. Cunningham.  Reading the events leading up to the night of the murder, I had an idea of who the murderer was, but I was wrong.  This one kept me guessing to the end.

Finishing this book puts me over my required number of books for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010, so I'm calling this challenge completed.