Kensington, Belletristik, Murder at Kingscote (Englisch, Alyssa Maxwell, 2020)

For fans of HBO&rsquo s The Gilded Age, explore the dark side of the alluring world of America&rsquo s 19th century elite in this gripping series of riveting mysteries&hellip In late nineteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, journalist Emma Cross discovers the newest form of transportation has become the newest type of murder weapon . . . On a clear July day in 1899, the salty ocean breeze along Bellevue Avenue carries new smells of gasoline and exhaust as Emma, now editor-in-chief of the Newport Messenger, covers Newport's first-ever automobile parade. But the festive atmosphere soon turns to shock as young Philip King drunkenly swerves his motorcar into a wooden figure of a nanny pushing a pram on the obstacle course. That evening, at a dinner party hosted by Ella King at her magnificent Gothic-inspired "cottage," Kingscote, Emma and her beau Derrick Andrews are enjoying the food and the company when Ella&rsquo s son staggers in, obviously still inebriated. But the disruption is nothing compared to the urgent shouts of the coachman. Rushing out, they find the family's butler pinned against a tree beneath the front wheels of Philip's motorcar, close to death. When Emma later receives a message informing her that the butler bullied his staff and took advantage of young maids, she steers the police toward a murder investigation. While Emma investigates the connections between a competing heir for the King fortune, a mysterious child, an inmate of an insane asylum, and the brutal boxing rings of Providence, a killer remains at large&mdash with unfinished business to attend to . . . &ldquo Excellent . . . Maxwell combines convincing character development and vivid depictions of Newport&rsquo s heyday with a well-plotted mystery. This historical series just keeps getting better.&rdquo &mdash Publisher Weekly (starred review).