Murder at Beacon Rock

Alyssa Maxwell

Aug 2022 · A Gilded Newport Mystery Book 10 · Kensington Books

About this ebook

In June 1900, reporter Emma Cross discovers the body of a woman in the waters below the Morgans’ mansion, which threatens to send members of Newport’s high society floundering . . .

As a reporter, Emma is used to covering Newport’s social events. But this time she is appearing on the arm of her fiancé, Derrick Andrews, at a small but exclusive gathering of the New York Yacht Club at Beacon Rock, the Grecian-inspired summer “cottage” of Edwin and Elizabeth Morgan. The members—which include cousin and Yacht Club Commodore John Pierpoint Morgan and widow Lucy Carnegie, the first woman to be admitted to the Club—are there to discuss their strategy for the next America’s Cup Challenge, to be held in New York Harbor the following summer.
 
But it’s Emma who must come up with a strategy when she discovers a woman’s body bobbing against one of the hulls of the boats moored at the base of Beacon Rock. Is it possible she fell from the Newport ferry and was carried by the tide? Or could she have drowned herself or fallen victim to foul play?
 
After the woman is identified as the missing daughter of a yacht designer, the police—with the exception of Emma’s friend Detective Jesse Whyte—hastily conclude she is a suicide, perhaps to quiet any scandal for the Morgans, since her body was found floating near their property. But Emma suspects the woman was murdered and begins to sort through a who’s who of sportsmen, boat crews, and the Newport elite in search of a stone-cold killer . . .
 

Ratings and reviews

reporter, cozy-mystery, 1890s, law-enforcement, class-consciousness, amateur-sleuth, friendship, family-dynamics, murder, murder-investigation, historical-novel, historical-figures, historical-research, history-and-culture, relationships, yacht-races***** The publisher's blurb is a good intro to the story. Emma is a shirttail relative to the Vanderbilts, engaged to a higher member of the snob set, the owner/reporter of a local newspaper, and a good amateur sleuth who has a good friend in the police department. This time she is at a boring soiree at Beacon Rock when she and the widow Lucy Carnegie discover the body of a well-dressed young woman under the pier. Let the sleuthing begin! There are exquisite descriptions of both attire and surroundings, plus exhaustive descriptions of the lineage and implications of financial heredity as well as the general snobbery of the era. The mystery is well done, and the characters are both interesting and believable. A very good read. I requested and received a free e-book copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley.

I have loved all of these books. I couldn't put it down.

About the author

Alyssa Maxwell knew from an early age that she wanted to be a novelist. Growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles of all kinds drew her to the mystery genre. She and her husband reside in Florida, where she loves to watch BBC productions, sip tea in the afternoons, and delve into the past. You can learn more about Alyssa and her books at alyssamaxwell.com.