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DEATH ON THE HOMEFRONT by Frances McNamara

DEATH ON THE HOMEFRONT

by Frances McNamara

Pub Date: Dec. 15th, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9996982-7-3
Publisher: Allium Press

All things German are reviled as the United States prepares for World War I.

University of Chicago professor Emily Cabot Chapman, her husband, and their three children have diverse opinions on the war. Emily’s a member of the peace movement. So is her daughter Lizzie’s best friend, Hazel. But Lizzie herself—engaged, like her friend, to one of the Spofford sons—is influenced by her fiancé George Spofford’s wealthy family, who are all in on the war. Attending a dinner for Belgian Relief, Lizzie’s annoyed when Hazel fails to show up to take her place next to their future mother-in-law. Ignoring a note Hazel had sent her via a busboy until after dinner, Lizzie finds her with her throat cut. A recently fired German waiter is arrested. Lizzie begs Emily to get her old friend Detective Whitbread to investigate, but Emily learns he’s been sidelined to burglary. Emily agrees to help Clarence Darrow’s associate Alex Mirkin, who takes on the waiter’s defense. When George takes Emily, Lizzie, and Alex to watch a car race, they’re horrified to see his brother, Fred, killed in a crash that turns out to be no accident. Robbers, militant unionists, German spies, and warmongering vigilante groups are all in the mix as Emily desperately fights to keep her family safe.

McNamara remains adept at weaving historical figures into complex mysteries with a human touch.