About the Book:
Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell in his opulent Manhattan town house?
At once a gripping mystery and a richly detailed excavation of a lost age, 31 Bond Street is a spellbinding tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics in 1857 New York. Author Ellen Horan interweaves fact and fiction—reimagining the sensational nineteenth-century crime that rocked the city a few short years before the Civil War ripped through the fabric of the nation, while transporting readers back to a time that eerily echoes our own.
Though there are no clues to the brutal slaying of wealthy Dr. Burdell, suspicion quickly falls on Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed his house and servants. An ambitious district attorney seeks a swift conviction, but defense attorney Henry Clinton is a formidable obstacle—a man firmly committed to justice and the law, and to the cause of a frightened, vulnerable woman desperately trying to save herself from the gallows.
About the Author:
Ellen Horan has worked as a studio artist and as a photo editor for magazines and books in New York City. She currently lives in downtown Manhattan, the setting of her first novel, 31 Bond Street.
Find out more about Ellen and 31 Bond Street at her website. Add Ellen as a friend on Facebook.
My Review:
I love getting and reading a book and ending up surprised (pleasantly, of course!) with the content. This author is fantastic. She took a true crime and wove it’s details into a magnificent work of fiction. From beginning to end, she filled the pages with words and characters that become the reader. The reader is taken on twists and turns through out, following the author’s clue like words to the very end.
The setting is set just before the civil war in New York. There’s carriages and fancy dresses, there’s little boys who do errands for important people, and then there’s crime. A murder. A horribly, gruesome, mysterious murder of a Bond Street dentist. Instantly, I was hooked on this richly detailed crime. I felt the excitement of the town when it found out about the murder of Dr. Burdell. I became Henry Clinton, if but for a time, as I (he) tried to find the answers and save Emma Cunnigham, one of the last people to see the Doctor alive. This is just something I could never think about happening back then, but through fabulous research, Ellen Horan brings it to life and now I know:scandalous, greedy murders were a part of the history then.
If you love fiction, if you love true crime, if you simply love the work of an outstanding author, then, without hesitation, read this beyond 5 star, high society, dramatic, scandalous crime debut. Ellen Horan has instantly made a place for herself on my favorites list, and I look forward to more WOWmazing work centered around true crime, the Civil War era, and complex characters!
You can visit the other stops on the tour
here.
You can purchase your copy
here.
Like this:
Like Loading...
