New Mystery from Tam May

 

A Wordless Death: An Early 20th Century Mystery
(Adele Gossling Mysteries Book 2)

Tam May
July 2022

Dreambook Press

361 pages

Ebook $4.99
Print $12.99

Buy on Amazon 
Barnes and Noble 

About the Book

Is the death of a schoolteacher suicide or something more sinister?

Adele Gossling is adjusting well to small-town life after the hustle and bustle of San Francisco. Despite her progressive ideas about women and her unladylike business acumen, even Arrojo’s most prominent citizens are beginning to accept her. Provided she sticks with the business of fountain pens and letter paper and stays out of crime investigation, that is…

But that’s just what she can’t do when Millie Gibb, the new teacher at the local girl’s school, is found dead and everybody in town assumes the homely, unmarried spinster committed suicide. After all, what enemies could a harmless, middle-aged woman have?

Adele and her clairvoyant friend Nin intend to find out. But can they prove Millie’s death was foul play based on a cigar stub, a letter fragment, and a cigarette lighter before the case is closed for good?

You’ll love this turn-of-the-century whodunit where a sassy and smart New Woman gives the police a run for their money!

My Review

Adele Gossling hasn’t had much time to rest after her former neighbor and potential friend was found dead in her yard. After a strange encounter with local teacher Miss Gibb at the post office one morning, during which her impatience and the postmaster’s cantankerousness moods clash, Adele has reason to feel concern as Miss Gibb is soon dead in her boarding house room.

Adele’s brother Jackson is now a member of Arrojo’s small police force, but he’s still nursing some misgivings about this brave new century and independent women. A woman who isn’t a homemaker and mother must be unfulfilled in life, and therefore unhappy, and maybe unhappy enough to end her own misery. Lacking definitive proof of foul play. Miss Gibb’s case is put to rest. Adele isn’t sure about that, and with the urging of one of the boarding house residents eagerly sets out to learn the truth of the matter.

Adele and her friend Nin connive their way onto the scene of the crime as well as into the evidence files and begin to unravel a cruel and twisted murder mystery that can’t be ignored.

It’s time to put to rest the notion that a woman with foiled aspirations to rise in her career must be suicidal. Adele and Nin are living examples of independent and content modern women, and crusaders of justice. With snappy and acerbic dialog, May gives readers a quirky and strong female sleuth for the Modern Age. I await Adele’s next adventure.

About the Author

As soon as Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, writing became her voice. She writes engaging, fun-to-solve historical cozy mysteries. Her mysteries empower readers with detailed plots and a sense of “justice is done” at the end. Her fiction is set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area because she adores sourdough bread, Ghirardelli chocolate, and the area’s rich history. Find more at http://www.tammayauthor.com

New Adele Gossling mystery from Tam May

 

The Carnation Murder
Tam May
May 2022
Dreambook Press
360 pages
Ebook $2.99
Print $12.99
 
Buy on Amazon 
Barnes and Noble 
 
About the Book
Can a forward-thinking woman help the police solve a murder in a backward-thinking town?

Smart inquisitive, and a firm believer in the new progressive reforms, Adele Gossling seeks a new life after the devastating death of her father. So she flees the big city of San Francisco for the small town of Arrojo. She plans a life of peace and small pleasures running her own stationery shop and living in her own house.

But peace is exactly what she doesn’t get when she discovers her neighbor dead in her gazebo. The police think they have a firm suspect: the young man who was secretly engaged to the victim. But Adele and her clairvoyant new friend Nin Branch suspect the young man is innocent. In spite of the raised eyebrows from Arrojo’s Victorian-minded citizens, she and Nin set out to prove Richard Tanning didn’t do it. But if he didn’t, who did?

Can Adele and Nin solve this puzzling case involving a striped carnation, a diamond ring, a note, a muddy pair of boots, and a broken promise? Or will Richard hang for a crime he didn’t commit and the real killer go free?

 
My Review

From the moment Adele roars up to Arrojo, California’s downtown in her newfangled automobile and confronts the hobsnobs, I rooted and cheered for this firmly kind progressive young woman. It’s not easy trying to live the life you want; definitely not when you’re a single young woman in 1904. Adele sets up housekeeping in a classic abandoned home and sets up a stationery business with her inheritance from her late father, a San Francisco attorney. Adele’s handsome single brother, Jackson, a former detective now at loose ends, occasionally comes to check on her, and the two of them become embroiled in a murder investigation after an unfortunate neighbor girl’s body is discovered in Adele’s gazebo.

May did a great job of establishing several suspects and unique plot twists. I love mysteries and truly wasn’t completely certain about the identity of the murderer until the end. Adele gradually turns the hoity toity neighbors into allies and friends, and Jackson learns to find peace with his own special set of policing skills. Fully fleshed characters and well-researched for era and setting, readers who like mysteries with strong female sleuths and unique characters will enjoy this first book in a new series.

 
About the Author

As soon as Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, writing became her voice. She writes engaging, fun-to-solve historical cozy mysteries. Her mysteries empower readers with detailed plots and a sense of “justice is done” at the end. Her fiction is set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area because she adores sourdough bread, Ghirardelli chocolate, and the area’s rich history. Find more at http://www.tammayauthor.com