“Delivering the Truth” by Edith Maxwell
“Delivering the Truth” is Edith Maxwell’s first title in her Quaker Midwife Mystery series. Rose Carroll, the midwife and our heroine, practices her vocation in 1888 Amesbury, Massachusetts, a time when most women are expected to become wives and mothers. But Rose is not most women.
As a midwife, she dispenses advice and checks on her patients, helps with both easy and difficult deliveries, and visits after the birth to make sure that everything is going well with the new moms. Not everyone approves of Rose’s chosen career path or her straightforward demeanor, but she is in a unique position to hear bits of information not often available to the police, given the intimacy of her relationship with her clients. Women share all kinds of revealing details at times like these.
When all of the major carriage factories in Amesbury burn down, over a dozen men are trapped inside the Parry factory and lose their lives. Arson is suspected, but who would do such a thing and why? Several of Rose’s clients are connected in some way to the carriage industry – Amesbury’s largest employer – and after seeing a shadowy figure in the wrong place, she seeks to learn the truth behind the suspicious fire. In the process, Rose places herself in danger and risks disapproval from those close to her.
There is more going on than arson in this cleverly plotted book. “Delivering the Truth” is packed with betrayals, jealousy, suspects who are wrongly accused, as well as Rose’s own budding romance with a charming doctor. Rose’s keen mind and sense of fairness carry us through the conflicts between class and culture, infidelity, and steadfast loyalty.
Through Rose’s discussions with real-life historical figure John Greenleaf Whittier – poet, abolitionist, and important to the Society of Friends – we gain insight into the inner workings of late 1800’s Quakers and their belief system at the time, including their support of equality between men and women and non-violence in the home. Rose has grown up with these ideals, and champions those who are treated otherwise.
Maxwell did a tremendous amount of research to get the details correct for the period. Along with interviews, discussions, and readings, she stayed at a living history center in Maine for 24 hours, learning about the work required for home life in the late 1800s. The result is that Maxwell transports us to the late 19th century in “Delivering the Truth” as we are immersed in the clothes, the cooking, societal restrictions, and expectations about women during that era. A gift of knitting needles has hand painted flowers and vines woven through Rose’s initials. What patience and skill it would take to create such small details on a knitting needle. Who knew that such a thing existed? One of the fun details introduces us to the Post Mistress who rides astride her horse, rather than side saddle, her bloomers ‘scandalously’ on display all the while. Marvelous tidbits that bring our history to life.
“Delivering the Truth” makes a highly successful foray into the past and entertains us with a wonderful new sleuth, Quaker midwife, Rose Carroll. Happily, the second in the series has just been published (April, 2017) and more books are planned.
Also happily, “Delivering the Truth” was a finalist in the Historical Mystery category of the Agatha Awards for this year’s Malice Domestic conference. 
Read Edith Maxwell’s Author Profile here.
Please visit www.edithmaxwell.com for information about Edith Maxwell's other series as well as her short stories.
Author Profile: Edith Maxwell
Edith Maxwell writes award-winning short stories, has several series of full-length mysteries out and has been nominated for Agatha Awards in both the Short Story and Historical Fiction categories for this year’s Malice Domestic mystery conference. At this writing, she has eleven published novels since 2012 under the names Tace Baker, Maddie Day, and Edith Maxwell, with #12 due out next month. She is working on three more to be published in the near future. She is the one of the most prolific traditionally published authors I know and she is loving all of it!
I first met Edith at a Writers Police Academy conference in the Fall of 2012. At the time, she had just published her first Lauren Rousseau title, “Speaking of Murder,” as Tace Baker. I was hooked by the intelligent, worldly, complex female lead character. She attended WPA in order to research police procedure, and also gathered tons of information about firefighters and EMS personnel that she might use in future novels.
Edith Maxwell, Liz Mugavero – WPA 2012
While following her career the last few years, it’s become apparent that solid research underpins all her books. Happily, combined with her own personal experiences, the result is richly developed backgrounds and storylines.
For the Country Store series, Maxwell took a trip to Indiana in order to investigate the setting, special southern Indiana phrasing (“I can’t eat another bite ’cause I’m as full as a tick”), and foods specific to the region. As it happens, she was also returning to the area of her grad school days and the site of a university packed with her own Maxwell family history. Friends of hers in the grad program had restored an old country store and turned it into a restaurant and bed & breakfast, the basis for Robbie Jordan’s ‘Pans ‘N Pancakes’ establishment in the series. In addition, Maxwell loves to cook and there are virtual cooking lessons woven throughout the stories as well as yummy recipes to be found.
Fun fact: my mom had an amazing collection of antique cookware, so when Robbie chats about the vintage pieces in her store, I can see the tools in my mind’s eye. Maxwell/Day’s details? Wonderful!
The Local Foods series features an organic farmer as the lead character, and guess what? Edith ran her own small certified organic farm for a few years and that expertise infuses the series with effortless realism. Readers can pick up tips about what it takes to grow produce organically, both the pitfalls and the plusses, while enjoying the cleverly crafted mysteries.
The Quaker Midwife series is a project close to Edith’s heart. She is a Quaker herself and some of the history and the daily practices of the Society of Friends have found their way into this series. Maxwell now lives in Amesbury, Massachusetts where the books are set, and the local history influenced her short story writing. One of the short stories became the impetus for a 19th c. midwife character. Rose Carroll, the Quaker midwife, is perfectly placed to be a sleuth, since she gets to go where men (and the police) can’t in 1888, and hears all kinds of secrets that help solve the crimes. Beautifully written, “Delivering the Truth” is well-deserving of the Agatha historical mystery nomination this year.
Click on the link to check out Maxwell’s YouTube video of a walking tour of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Maxwell is wearing an authentic self-made 1888 dress and bonnet while she conducts the tour and chats about the sites mentioned in “Delivering the Truth.” What a fun and terrific way to launch a series!
Plus, as Maddie Day, Edith has a new cozy foodie mystery series, Cozy Capers Book Group, set on Cape Cod. “Murder on Cape Cod” will be the first title launched in 2018. The lead character runs a bicycle repair and rental shop and hosts a weekly cozy mystery book group. My dad’s family came from the Cape, and I’m looking forward to reading Maxwell/Day’s take on the region.
So, how does she keep up this writing pace and still maintain the quality in her books? First, she is doing what she loves. She has a writing schedule for each day – mornings are the best for her – but when a deadline looms, she sometimes goes away for a few days on retreat. She turns off the internet so that there are no distractions at all and she can write from dawn ‘til midnight if she needs to. When slipping away to a retreat, Maxwell likes to take along comfy clothes, walking shoes, a laptop, a favorite pen, and an actual paper notebook. Oh, and of course, wine and dark chocolate.
Maxwell writes traditional mysteries with absorbing puzzles to solve, and appealing characters that engage us on every page. With strong female leads, fascinating details, and multi-layered plots, this is an author we want to follow, wherever (or whenever) she leads us.
Read the review of “A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die,” (Local Foods series) here.
Read the review of “Grilled for Murder,” (Country Store series) here (written as Maddie Day)
Read review of “Delivering the Truth” (Quaker Midwife series) here.
"Delivering the Truth" has been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery. And “The Mayor and the Midwife” has been nominated for an Agatha for Best Short Story. Read the short story here.
Edith Maxwell is a member of the Wicked Cozy Authors, the New England gals that share writing advice and their own experiences every week at www.wickedcozyauthors.com. She also writes with Killer Characters, and with the Midnight Ink authors.
For more information about Ms. Maxwell and her many projects, please visit www.edithmaxwell.com
Photo "Writer" taken by Patti Phillips
Other photos provided by Edith Maxwell
“Whispers Beyond the Veil” by Jessica Estevao
“Whispers Beyond the Veil” is the first book in the Change of Fortune series. Jessica Estevao has penned a self-reliant female character who thinks on her feet in risky situations and when cornered, often chooses the path most likely to keep her out of jail.
Jail? This is no ordinary gal growing up in a quaint family business. Ruby Proulx is a con artist, who makes a living by taking money from the gullibles passing through the circus tents. But, even with all the flimflam miracle cures and tarot card readings, she and her father are just getting by, in part because he drinks and schemes the earnings away. This is 1890s Canada, and when a dangerous scam results in a death, and her father disappears, she flees south to Maine to an aunt she’s never met.
Ruby’s arrival at her aunt Honoria’s hotel is a surprise to everyone except Honoria. Happy to repay Honoria for her kindness, Ruby continues to use her skills with séances and Tarot cards to help her aunt’s hotel survive. A hotel that features ‘spiritualists’ as the main attraction.
But, Ruby is caught between skeptics who feel that Honoria is scamming the visitors and stealing their hard-earned money and a wish to have a home she’s never had before. She’d like to fess up that she’s a fraud, but telling the truth may only put her on the street or put her aunt in jail. What’s a con artist to do?
The characters are either sweetly oblivious to the cons, in on them, or working hard to expose them. A handsome policeman, a psychic investigator, bodies popping up, and peeks behind the scenes of a con artist’s life, enrich the story, but when Ruby becomes a suspect in several crimes, she must guard both her heart and her skills to escape the snares.
With an inventive main character and Old Orchard Beach as the setting, this new series is off to a great start and “Whispers Beyond the Veil” has been nominated for an Agatha Award. Please visit www.jessicaestevao.com for more information about the Change of Fortune books as well as her other series, written as Jessica Crockett, also great fun.
Irish Mysteries – 2017
St. Patrick’s Day will be here soon! For those of you that focus your reading on holiday/cultural themed books, the list below features Irish writers and/or mysteries set in Ireland. Some are modern classics, some are newbies, but all are entertaining reads. You’re sure to find a title in the list of 30 Irish Mysteries that you will want to read again and again.
Lisa Alber: “Whispers in the Mist”
S. Furlong-Bollinger: “Paddy Whacked”
Sheila Connolly: "Cruel Winter"
Kathi Daley: “Shamrock Shenanigans”
Frank Delaney: "Shannon"
Nelson Demille: “Cathedral”
Tana French: “Faithful Place”
Alexia Gordon: “Murder in G Major”
Andrew Greeley: “Irish Tweed”
Jane Haddam: “A Great Day for the Deadly”
Lyn Hamilton: “The Celtic Riddle”
Lee Harris: “The St. Patrick's Day Murder”
Erin Hart: “Haunted Ground” review here
Jonathan Harrington: “A Great Day for Dying”
Mary Anne Kelly: “Twillyweed”
Amanda Lee: “The Long Stitch Good Night”
Wendi Lee: “The Good Daughter”
Dan Mahoney: “Once in, Never Out”
Brian McGilloway: “Little Girl Lost”
Ralph M. McInerny: “Lack of the Irish”
Leslie Meier: “St. Patrick's Day Murder”
Stuart Neville: "Ghosts of Belfast”
Carlene O'Connor: "Murder at an Irish Wedding"
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie: “Death Takes Up A Collection”
Helen Page: "Equal of God"
Louise Phillips: “The Doll’s House”
Janet Elaine Smith: “In St. Patrick's Custody”
JJ Toner: “St. Patrick's Day Special”
Peter Tremayne: “The Devil’s Seal”
Kathy Hogan Trochek: “Irish Eyes”
If your favorite Irish Mysteries are not on the list, let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them!
Happy choosing and reading!
Greatest Love Stories of All Time
It’s the time of year when bouquets of flowers fill the stores, the gift of a box of chocolates takes on new meaning, and love songs (and movies) fill the airwaves. Swoonworthy stuff, ya’ll.
Instead of creating a post about current titles that inspire hearts to flutter, I put out an open call for men and women to name their favorite Greatest Love Stories of All Time. Thanks to Mari Barnes*, Sarah Bewley, Leah Canzoneri, Kait Carson, Peggy Clayton, Joy Ross Davis, Missy Davis, Laura Di Silverio, Saword Broyles Ellis, Terri Gault, Courtney Carter Girton, Sherry Harris, Cynthia Kuhn, Joyce Laferrera, Marj Lilley, Alice Loweecy, Gary Miller, Sylvia Nickels, Debbie York Parker, Nanci Rathbun, Jeanie Smith, Ellis Vidler, and Lynn Chandler Willis for their wonderful suggestions. *drawing winner
Books are listed in alphabetical order by title, and where available, links to the Greatest Love Stories are included. Click on the titles and read more about them.
“At Home in Mitford” by Jan Karon
“Cinderella Story” by Wendy Logia
“Come Rain or Come Shine” by Jan Karon
“Dr. Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
“Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry
“Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon
“Persuasion” by Jane Austen
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
“Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
“Shadow of the Moon” by MM Kaye
“Somewhere in Time” by Richard Matheson
“Soulless” by Gail Carriger
“The Far Pavilions” by MM Kaye
“The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper
“The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks
“The Princess Bride” by William Goldman
“The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy
“The Second Coming” by Walker Percy
“The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough
Are you thinking romantic, weak-at-the-knees thoughts?
Our work is done. 😉
Photo credit: Patti Phillips
The Agatha Awards for 2016 Books
The winners for the Agatha Awards for 2016 (named for Agatha Christie) have been announced. The awards were bestowed upon mystery and crime writers at the annual Malice Domestic conference on April 29, 2017. The nominated books were first published in the United States by a living author between January 1 and December 31, 2016.
The Agatha Awards recognize the "traditional mystery," meaning that there is no graphic sex and no excessive violence in the writing. Thrillers or hard-boiled detectives cannot be found here, but instead, picture Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot at work.
Click on the author’s name for more information about the book and the rest of the author’s work. The winners are indicated in red. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!
Best Contemporary Novel
“Body on the Bayou” by Ellen Byron
“Quiet Neighbors” by Catriona McPherson
“A Great Reckoning” by Louise Penny
“Fogged Inn” by Barbara Ross
“Say No More” by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Best Historical Novel
“Whispers Beyond the Veil” by Jessica Estevao
“Get Me to the Grave on Time” by D.E. Ireland
“Delivering the Truth” by Edith Maxwell
“The Reek of Red Herrings” by Catriona McPherson
“Murder in Morningside Heights” by Victoria Thompson
Best First Novel
“Terror in Taffeta” by Marla Cooper
“Murder in G Major” by Alexia Gordon
“The Semester of Our Discontent” by Cynthia Kuhn
“Decanting a Murder” by Nadine Nettmann
“Design for Dying” by Renee Patrick
Best Short Story
"Double Jinx: A Bellissimo Casino Crime Caper Short Story" by Gretchen Archer
"The Best-Laid Plans" by Barb Goffman in Malice Domestic 11: Murder Most Conventional
"The Mayor and the Midwife" by Edith Maxwell in Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016
"The Last Blue Glass" by B.K. Stevens in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
"Parallel Play" by Art Taylor in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning
Please visit www.malicedomestic.org for the nominations and winners in the Non-Fiction and Children/YA categories for the Agatha Awards for the 2016 books.
Time to get reading. Enjoy!
Top 10: The First Four Years of Nightstand Book Reviews
The first four years of Nightstand Book Reviews delivered a wide range of books to my doorstep and to my email inbox. Right from the beginning, I have received more than 100 requests a month (once over 400) from writers and publicists and friends of writers and publicists to review the latest book they had to offer.
It has been a fun problem to have. The strategy was (and remains) to choose great reads to chat about and share with the thousands of Nightstand Book Reviews followers around the world. The books on the site are by and large fiction, and tell a well-plotted story involving nicely developed characters. The authors are a mix of bestselling writers of longstanding, and newbies to the field when I first met them. Traditionally published or ebook only? Both happily co-exist on NBR. Occasionally I highlight biographies, great cookbooks, and helpful gardening books. A new feature in 2016 was Author Profiles. You’ll see more of those in 2017.
Below is the list of Top 10 books reviewed on Nightstand Book Reviews over the last four years, listed in ABC order by author. These were the books that garnered the most interest on NBR from the worldwide audience during the four years. Six books on the list were the debut novels from those authors. Some powerhouse writers (long, successful careers with great popularity) mixed in with newbies? A good book is a good book.
All of these authors now have multiple books out. Click on the book title to read the review.
Lee Child – “The Killing Floor”
Robert Dugoni – “My Sister’s Grave”
Robert Dugoni – “The Conviction”
Sherry Harris – “Tagged for Death”
Sue Harrison – “Mother Earth, Father Sky”
Erin Hart – “Haunted Ground”
Tami Hoag – “Alibi Man”
Craig Johnson – “The Cold Dish”
Leigh Perry – “A Skeleton in the Family”
Andy Weir – “The Martian”
Have you read any of the titles on the list? Wildly different books to be sure, with thrillers, sci-fi, traditional mysteries, and cozies in the group.
And soooo much fun to read.
Thank you all, kind readers, for being part of the Nightstand Book Reviews community during the first four years. Your comments and participation make me smile as I search for the next great read to share with you.
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