I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died: An Emily Dickinson Mystery

Flower’s spirited second whodunit featuring Emily Dickinson and her maid, Willa Noble (after 2022’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death), sees the pair solving the murder of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s secretary. It’s 1856, and Emerson is preparing to visit Amherst, Mass., to speak at the town’s literary society. To the delight of the Dickinson family, Emerson and his secretary, Luther Howard, have decided to lodge with Emily’s brother, Austin, and his new bride, Susan. Shortly after the men arrive in Amherst, however, complications arise: first, a peddler punches Luther in the face outside Austin and Susan’s home and warns the couple that their guest is a “monster” who will ruin their lives. Then, Willa becomes disturbed after Luther suggests that she share some of Emily’s writings with him, ostensibly as a way to get Emerson’s opinion on them. When Luther turns up poisoned to death in Austin’s garden, placing the Dickinson family’s reputation (and possibly their lives) under threat, Willa and Emily must delve into the peculiar man’s past to ferret out the killer. Flower plays scrupulously fair with readers and evokes the period marvelously. Fans of Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries will be thrilled. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Nov.)