Lay This Body Down: A Gideon Stoltz Mystery

Set in 1837, Fergus’s fine third Gideon Stoltz mystery (after 2021’s Nighthawk’s Wing) vividly recreates pre–Civil War tensions in the service of a gripping whodunit. After Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1780, the state became a refuge for those who escaped from enslavement. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 places Stoltz, the Colerain County, Pa., sheriff, in a bind; he’s legally obliged to help slave catchers hunt down their quarry, but he doesn’t sympathize with their efforts. Then two Virginians appear in the town of Adamant searching for a teenage runaway, Leo Waller, who has helped the sheriff with a murder investigation. Their arrival coincides with a report from Black citizen Melchior Dorfman that three Black people have gone missing. Meanwhile, someone smashes in the skull of Phineas Potter, the publisher of the local newspaper, who endorsed Stoltz’s opponent in the last sheriff’s election. Dorfman becomes a suspect, having been seen arguing with Potter the night before by Stoltz himself, after they attended a talk by an abolitionist disrupted by violent members of the audience. Fergus’s plotting matches his superior historical detail. This series merits a long run. Agent: Natalia Aponte, Aponte Literary. (Feb.)