A Fatal Fondness (Mary MacDougall Mysteries)
Historical Mystery
4th in Series
Conger Road Press (November 15, 2019)
Paperback: 268 pages

Synopsis

It’s September 1902, and Mary MacDougall has fulfilled her greatest dream—opening her own detective agency. But this achievement doesn’t come without complication.

Mary’s father insists that an older cousin come to work with her—as both secretary and minder. Jeanette Harrison pledges to keep the plucky sleuth away from danger, as well as from her unsuitable suitor Edmond Roy. This arrangement, embarrassingly, makes Mary the only detective in the state with a chaperone.

The new agency’s first cases hardly seem to portend danger or significance. There’s the affair of the nicked napkin rings…the problem of the purloined pocket watch…and the matter of the four filched felines.

Mary and Jeanette have not the slightest notion that one of these modest little jobs will blow up into the most consequential and perilous case of the heiress-sleuth’s budding career. What begins in triviality mushrooms into disappearance, betrayal, international intrigue, and murder. As she learns more and more, Mary’s prospects for making the acquaintance of an assassin’s blade improve exponentially.

Witty, fast-paced, and enthralling, A Fatal Fondness—the fourth tale in the series—delves deeply into Mary’s world and paints the portrait of an unconventional young woman ever-ready to defy propriety for the sake of justice.

“In the spirit of Nancy Drew and the Corner House Girls… [The author] captures the turn-of-the-century period perfectly, when young women like Mary were trying to burst out of Victorian expectations to become their own person.” —Mary Ann Grossmann, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Guest Post

The Sears Roebuck Catalog: Writing About the World of 1902

By Richard Audry

My Mary MacDougall Mysteries are all set in the Midwest—mostly in Minnesota—soon after the turn of the 20th century. The first two stories (novellas) take place in 1901 and the third and fourth (full-length novels) in 1902. This is a world just on the cusp of modernity.

The typewriter is well established in offices all over America by then. Telephones are not exactly commonplace, but their numbers are growing steadily. Horseless carriages are still a novelty, but any well-to-do person could certainly afford one. President Roosevelt takes his first ride in one in 1902. Scientists and physicians are beginning to gain familiarity with x-rays for medical diagnosis—sometimes learning the hard way that the invisible rays can injure and kill. Scotland Yard has started using fingerprints to identify criminals. The Wright Brothers’ first flight is only a year away.

While these products and technologies were all revolutionary, they aren’t the most important aspects of describing everyday life in the early 1900s. When I started writing about my young detective, I needed to know what were the things Mary MacDougall might use or wear around the house, out-and-about, at parties, or traveling. In my new mystery, A Fatal Fondness, I again found myself relying on the 1902 version of the “wish book” that almost every American household received in the mail annually, until it ended 26 years ago—the Sears Roebuck catalog.

What kind of watch did Mary have? She wears a chatelaine watch, a pendant timepiece that’s pinned at the waist. “Our Latest Genuine French Enameled Chatelaine Watch for $8.00. The case is gold filled, beautifully enameled in either blue, ruby red or green. The chatelaine [the decorative pin] matches the watch. The movement is an imported one, made in Switzerland, perfectly trued and adjusted.”

Men in 1902 wore shirts, but Mary and other women did not. Nor did they wear anything called blouses. At least there’s no such thing in the Sears catalog. They wore shirtwaists, a shirt-like garment that the catalog calls “waists.” They might be made with percale, sateen, or silk. “Ladies High Grade Waist. Made of good quality mercerized sateen, tucked in front with strap of same material; finished in a bolero effect; neatly trimmed with small buttons; high standing collar made of same material; flaring cuffs; bishop sleeves; plaits in back.”

When Mary spends a day at the university and attends a football game, she doesn’t just wear a skirt, but a walking skirt. “Very Good Value in a Walking Skirt,” says Sears. “We make a specialty of this skirt and we can positively say that it is the best value for the money; it is made of gray diagonal cloth, a cotton and wool mixture; flounced bottom neatly trimmed with hair cording as shown.”

Now when Mary and Jeanette are being driven around Duluth by the MacDougalls’ factotum Bill, it’s easy enough to call their vehicle a “carriage.” But I wanted something that sounded more particular to the era, more old-fashioned. Happily, Sears offers various conveyances for you to hitch your horse to. Wagons are the work vehicles and buggies are the two-seaters. A surrey is just the thing when more than two need a ride. In fact, Mary’s father expresses exasperation that Mary and her brother want an Oldsmobile, when they had just purchased a new surrey the year before.

And the first time Mary enjoys an excellent cup of cocoa at a little bakery/café, her server proudly boasts that they only use Van Houten’s finest powder—featured in the catalog’s food section.

Of course, some of the items that play a role in the new novel I found via good, old-fashioned Googling. How would Mary and her sidekick Jeanette prepare tea in an office without a gas burner? Well, an early electric teakettle was available at that time. One of the characters has a bad leg. And what does she take to relieve the pain? She reaches for her little white box of Bayer Heroin pills. Yup. Heroin. Back then it was an ordinary over-the-counter medication.

About the Author

Richard Audry is the pen name of D. R. Martin. He is the author of the Mary MacDougall historical mysteries (four titles) and the King Harald canine cozy series (three titles). Under his own name, he has written the Johnny Graphic ghost adventure trilogy, the Marta Hjelm hardboiled mystery Smoking Ruin, and two books on some of his favorite authors: Travis McGee & Me and Four Science Fiction Masters.

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