The Dangerous Ladies Affair: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery

In MWA grand masters Muller and Pronzini’s sprightly fifth mystery set in late 19th-century San Francisco (after 2016’s The Plague of Thieves), Sabina Carpenter, an ardent suffragette, bicycling enthusiast, and self-described New Woman (“the term used to describe the modern woman who broke with the traditional role of wife and mother by working outside the home”), investigates death threats received by her new friend Amity Wellman, a Votes for Women activist. Meanwhile, poetry-reading but handy-with-his-fists John Quincannon, Sabina’s partner in Professional Detective Services, tracks down the mastermind of a blackmailing scheme and tackles a locked-room murder. The reader gets a glimpse of “less than respectable” theater performances, passenger ships on the Sacramento River, and anti-suffragette protestors, as well as being treated to the delicate unfolding of tender feelings between the two protagonists. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Jan.)