Death at the Fair

Frances McNamara

Allium Press of Chicago, 2009

ISBN 978-0-9840676-1-9

Trade paper, 215 pages

$14.95, U.S.

Reviewed by John Theilmann

Period mysteries pose a special challenge for authors as they must tell compelling tales and get the history right. Frances McNamara, a librarian at the University of Chicago, has accomplished both tasks in this murder mystery set in the Chicago of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The protagonist is Emily Cabot, a plucky graduate student at the new University of Chicago, who solves a murder committed at the Fair in order to exonerate a friend.

Cabot is forced to investigate the murder of Charles Larrimer, a wealthy cotton dealer from Kentucky who was visiting the fair with his wife Marguerite, in order to clear her friend Dr Stephen Chapman who was accused of murdering Larrimer in the a tent on the Midway of the Fair. Emily receives help with the investigation from Ida B. Wells, assistance that uncovers Larrimer’s unsavory past including his instigation of a lynching in Kentucky.

Emily is able to get Chapman freed after Eugene Prendergast, who had shot Larrimer, kills Chicago mayor Carter Harrison. The authorities finally acknowledge the mass of evidence that she has presented on behalf of Chapman as well as the evidence implicating Prendergast. She is, however, not reinstated as a student at the University of Chicago. As the book concludes, Emily Cabot is preparing to undertake a new career in settlement house work at Hull House, leading to second novel in the new series.

The author captures the excitement and the melancholy of the last days of the fair as well as somewhat of Chicago life at the time. Some of the excitement of the University of Chicago and its experiment in admitting women also comes across in the novel as does the disapproval that many women students faced. In addition the book provides vignettes concerning contemporary racial attitudes and the impact of lynching on American life.

Cabot receives help from her brother Alden in solving the murder and support from her mother who was visiting the Fair. Nonetheless, she is expelled from Chicago at the end of the book because of her conduct which was considered unladylike. Some figures such as Dean MarionTalbot who championed the enrollment of women at the new University are favorably portrayed.

Ida B. Wells had already begun her crusade against lynching when Cabot encountered her and proved to be of help in helping to obtain proof to help exonerate Chapman. McNamara’s portrayal of Wells, and indeed of other African Americans in the novel comes close to verging into the thicket of political correctness. All of the African American characters in the book are noble and helpful to Emily and can be seen in stark contrast to some Chicago political officials as well as Charles Larrimer and even Emily’s fellow graduate student, Clara Shea, who argues that blacks should accept their subordinate place in American society.

Overall, this is a spritely mystery that moves along nicely to the climax and resolution in the last few pages. McNamara does a good job of developing her major character and in capturing the Chicago of the 1890s. Particularly given the interesting people who populated Chicago at the turn of the century such as Clarence Darrow, Louis Sullivan, and John Peter Altgeld, I look forward to reading the next books in the Emily Cabot series.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION

I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.