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Cordelia Frances Biddle

Three mysteries set in nineteenth-century Philadelphia: From elegant drawing rooms to tragic slums, an heiress investigates a string of shocking crimes.

 The first three instalments in the acclaimed Martha Beale Mystery series are “a feast for those fans who enjoy engaging characters and . . . readers who loved Caleb Carr’s attention to detail in The Alienist and Jacqueline Winspear’s appealing sleuth, Maisie Dobbs” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
 
The Conjurer: When Martha’s father disappears from the family’s country estate, she begins an investigation that takes her from the pinnacle of society—abuzz with the arrival of a European conjurer who communicates with the dead—to the city’s poorest neighborhoods where a killer is targeting prostitutes.
 
 “Biddle wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time.” —Publishers Weekly
 
Deception’s Daughter: Now the guardian of two young children, Martha returns to Philadelphia to find it torn apart by the disappearance of a young heiress and a succession of unsolved robberies. Martha acts as liaison between the mayor’s aide and the missing girl’s parents, but the investigation takes a darker turn as rich and poor alike face a deadly threat.
 
 “A good read . . . skillfully evokes the elegant society salons and grubby streets of 1842 Philadelphia.” —Philadelphia Magazine
 
Without Fear: When a mill worker’s corpse is found on an estate outside Philadelphia, Martha joins the investigation. But a friend also needs help escaping her abusive socialite husband. As Martha navigates the growing divide between classes, she comes face-to-face with an evil that touches everyone, including her own adopted daughter.
 
 “The setting is unfolded as vividly as the characters. . . . A fine mix of history and mystery.” —Booklist

Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

The Martha Beale Mysteries

The Martha Beale Mysteries Volume One: The Conjurer, Deception's Daughter, and Without Fear

An heiress breaks free of social conventions and attempts to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance in 1842 Philadelphia in Cordelia Frances Biddle’s first Martha Beale mystery

When her father fails to appear for lunch at their country estate, Martha Beale knows something is wrong. The family’s faithful dogs discover Lemuel Beale’s hunting rifle by the river, but there is no sign of the millionaire financier. Refusing to believe he is dead, his daughter—and sole heir—begins a discreet investigation with the help of the mayor’s aide, Thomas Kelman.

But Philadelphia in 1842 is a dangerous place for a female, especially a twenty-six-year-old single woman. Martha’s quest for answers takes her from the pinnacle of high society, which is abuzz about a visiting European conjurer who communicates with the dead, to the city’s tragic slums where a brutal killer is targeting young prostitutes—and through it all Martha will confront the most ruthless aspects of human nature.

In a story deeply rooted in time and place and brimming with atmosphere and suspense, Cordelia Frances Biddle conjures a mesmerizing world of intrigue and hidden desires.

The Conjurer

Philadelphia heiress and amateur sleuth Martha Beale investigates the kidnapping of a society girl on the verge of marriage in Cordelia Frances Biddle’s second Martha Beale mystery

Martha Beale, now the guardian of seven-year-old Ella and five-year-old Cai, has just returned to Philadelphia after summering in the country. The children have to begin school, and Martha looks forward to a reunion with Thomas Kelman, even though she isn’t sure where their relationship stands. But a string of robberies is plaguing the city and the nineteen-year-old daughter of one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest families has vanished. 

With no unified police force, the mayor depends on Thomas Kelman to sort out criminal matters. Martha reluctantly acts as a liaison between Thomas and the missing girl’s parents, but the investigation soon takes a darker turn. As suspicion falls on rich and poor alike, both the guilty and innocent become ensnared in a web of deception and escalating violence.

Deception's Daughter

Philadelphia heiress and amateur sleuth Martha Beale investigates the identity of a headless corpse found on Joseph Bonaparte’s estate in the third novel in acclaimed author Cordelia Frances Biddle’s Martha Beale Mystery series

With her hands full raising her adopted children and managing her father’s financial empire, Martha Beale is also grieving the loss of her beau. Thomas Kelman, an assistant to the mayor, felt he could never belong in Martha’s upper-crust society and has boarded a merchant ship bound for South America. But the grisly discovery of a decapitated corpse on Joseph Bonaparte’s palatial estate outside of Philadelphia while Martha is visiting there will take the heiress far from her privileged world.

The dead woman is believed to be a missing employee of the Quaker City Mill. Martha searches for answers while also trying to help her friend Becky Taitt, a former actress and runaway wife whose abusive socialite husband will kill her before he lets her take custody of his child and heir. 

From the drawing rooms of Philadelphia’s elite to the inhumane factories and textile mills that exploit working-class women and children, Without Fear exposes the ever-growing divide between rich and poor and a festering evil that touches everyone, including Martha’s daughter.

Without Fear

A nineteenth-century Philadelphia heiress must rescue a friend from a criminal underworld in a series that “wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time” (Publishers Weekly).

Becky Grey Taitt is not the sort of woman who would typically infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters, but she is desperate for a powerful judge’s help in preventing her abusive husband from taking custody of her child—and that’ss the price the judge set in exchange for his aid.

But the plan goes awry, and now Becky is trapped among criminals and killers. Her only hope is her friend Martha Beale, who, along with her beau, Thomas Kelman, will do everything possible to rescue Becky, in this tale of political machinations, revenge, and murder.

“Fresh and believable. Biddle knows her manner and her city, and shows both to great advantage. ” —The Plain Dealer

“An intricately orchestrated narrative that implicates the Brahmin class and the corruption that comes with their absolute power. ” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for the Martha Beale Mysteries

“The setting is unfolded as vividly as the characters, from the ‘commoners’ working the textile mills to the unseemly criminal types of the upper-crust elite… . A fine mix of history and mystery. ” —Booklist

“A first-rate mystery. ” —Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times–bestselling author of Hid from Our Eyes

“A good read … skillfully evokes the elegant society salons and grubby streets of 1842 Philadelphia. ” —Philadelphia Magazine

The Actress

A society woman struggles to solve cases of arson and abduction in Victorian-era Philadelphia, in the series praised as “a fine mix of history and mystery” (Booklist).

In nineteenth-century Philadelphia, a case of arson turns lethal—but who was the perpetrator and what was the motive? While Thomas Kelman, Martha Beale’s beau, investigates the blaze, her adoptive daughter, Ella, is abducted. Then another fire destroys the home of industrialist Darius Rause, killing his adulterous wife. Is there a connection between the crimes? Martha and Kelman work to find an answer as they fight to rescue Ella before she also perishes, in this fast-paced historical crime novel in which duplicity reigns and the destinies of rich and poor collide.

Praise for the Martha Beale Mysteries

“Exceptional attention to period detail helps transport the reader to a past very unlike our own and yet so similar. ” —Publishers Weekly

“First-rate. ” —Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times–bestselling author of Hid from Our Eyes

“Biddle successfully uses 19th-century Philadelphia, mining the landscape for the kinds of jewels that illuminate a good mystery, and shaping characters that ring true to the elements of their creation. ” —The Philadelphia Inquirer