Death of an American Beauty by Mariah Fredericks

Death of an American Beauty by Mariah Fredericks ISBN-13: 9781250210883 Hardback: 272 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books Released: April 14th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Jane Prescott is taking a break from her duties as lady’s maid for a week, and plans to begin it with attending the hottest and most scandalous show in town: the opening of an art exhibition, showcasing the cubists, that is shocking New York City.

1913 is also the fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation speech, and the city's great and good are determined to celebrate in style. Dolly Rutherford, heiress to the glamorous Rutherford’s department store empire, has gathered her coterie of society ladies to put on a play—with Jane’s employer Louise Tyler in the starring role as Lincoln himself. Jane ends up helping the ladies with their costumes. Then a woman is found murdered outside Jane’s childhood home—a refuge for women run by her uncle.

Deeply troubled as her uncle falls under suspicion and haunted by memories of a woman she once knew, Jane—with the help of old friends and new acquaintances, reporter Michael Behan and music hall pianist Leo Hirschfeld—is determined to discover who is who is making death into their own twisted art form.


My Review:
Death of an American Beauty is a mystery set in 1913 in New York. This book is the third in a series but it can be read as a stand alone. The characters were interesting and reacted realistically to events. There was a lot of interesting historical detail about what was going on at the time, though some of it was not directly related to the mystery. The novels tend to focus on the struggles faced by different ethnic groups.

Jane's uncle is accused of murder, so she tried to learn about a past, similar murder to solve the current ones. Jane was basically just randomly guessing the people she didn't like until her one clue became useful. She stupidly put herself in danger several times, not thinking out how she would accomplish her goal or the dangers involved. Frankly, I lost my respect for her as a detective. There were no sex scenes or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this historical mystery to those mostly interested in the historical aspects.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.