The Daughters of Gentlemen: A Frances Doughty Mystery

In Stratmann’s diverting second Frances Doughty mystery (after 2012’s The Poisoned Seed), Frances takes on her first professional case as a detective. Concerned fathers engage Frances to find out who has been hiding a pamphlet entitled “Why Marry?,” anonymously penned by “A Friend to Women,” inside the students’ textbooks at the Bayswater Academy for the Education of Young Ladies. When the school’s housemaid, Matilda Springett, is found murdered, it becomes clear to Frances and Mary, her maid and friend, that the case is more serious. Vivid details and convincing period dialogue bring to life Victorian England during the early days of the women’s suffrage movement, which increasingly appeals to Frances even as she strives for acceptance from the male-dominated society of the time. Historical mystery fans will be hooked. (July)