No Escape

Brewer does a fine job of capturing the horror of a real mass killer--yellow fever, aka Yellow Jack or Bronze John--in this finely wrought tale about the three partners of the Big River Detective Agency in Memphis, Tenn., in 1873. The three detectives are Masey Baldridge, a gimpy Confederate veteran; Luke Williamson, a Union gunboat pilot who's now captain of the steamboat Paragon; and ex-prostitute Salina (Sally) Tyner. They're engaged secretly by the mayor of Memphis to discover who has been skimming funds from the Howard Association, a benevolent group fighting the devastation of yellow fever. Williamson's role is quickly restricted as Memphis imposes a quarantine that isolates the Paragon and its passengers. Baldridge takes a direct approach, investigating the puzzling murders of people already dying of the fever. Sally dons the nursing garb of the Howard Association and gets a close look at the ravages of the fearsome disease. Brewer movingly evokes both the panic and the heroism engendered by a fever whose origin was then unknown and whose treatment and prevention were bitterly debated. The result is a mystery that engages the reader's attention at several levels simultaneously. (July)