The Bond Street Burlesque: A Historical Novel of Murder

Paul's remarkable The Thomas Street Terror, The Tragedy at Tiverton and his latest are based on real crimes committed during the 1850s in America. Relating the third is young, aspiring attorney Toby Brendon, who takes the foxy Irish lawyer Lon Quinncannon as his mentor in New York. The two are drawn into the affairs of residents of a Bond Street building, owned by Harvey Burdell, a dentist. He is a miserly, lecherous man but a lodger, widowed Emma Cunninghamthe mistress he jiltsis set on forcing him to marry her. When Burdell is found murdered, she and an alleged male accomplice are arrested and Quinncannon takes the case. Toby is disillusioned; he realizes that his idol knows Emma is guilty but there are more important things about the wily defender that the youth has yet to learn. Evoking the yeasty climate of time and places, the tale keeps the reader in thrall, guessing about topsy-turvy events until the final, explosive minute. (February 23)