Conjurer (Biddle) - Book Reviews

Book Review
The inquiry into Beale's disappearance uncovers connections between the city's most affluent and its most destitute: an escaped inmate from the infamous Eastern State Penitentiary; the freed African-American prisoner, Ruth; the ritual slayings of several young girl prostitutes; and Eusapio Paladino, a conjurer and necromancer who claims to communicate with the dead. Biddle knows her manners and her city, and shows both to great advantage. The reader, as in all good historical mysteries, learns as much about a time and place as about the crime, and Biddle's characters are fresh and believable. I hope she continues the series.
Cleveland Plain Dealer


Biddle successfully uses 19th-century Philadelphia, mining the landscape for the kinds of jewels that illuminate a good mystery, and shaping characters that ring true to the elements of their creation. The Conjurer is a worthy inclusion in the genre, and I hope there are many more Martha Beale mysteries to come.
Philadelphia Inquirer


Sordid secrets of the rich and powerful drive the plot of Biddle's unconvincing Philadelphia historical, the first of a new series. One morning in 1842, Main Line financier Lemuel Beale fails to return from a routine hunting trip; his capable but coddled daughter, Martha, and Thomas Kelman, assistant to the mayor of Philadelphia, set out to track him down. At the same time, a brutal serial killer of young prostitutes is stalking the inner-city slums, and traveling mesmerist Eusapio Paladino is chilling aristocratic audiences with performances in which the dead appear to be calling out through his trances. These disparate yet interrelated story threads combine in an intricately orchestrated narrative that implicates the Brahmin class and the corruption that comes with their absolute power. Biddle wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time, but her overstocked tale ends hastily and unbelievably. Biddle is the coauthor with her husband, Steve Zettel, of Death on the Diagonal and other Nero Blanc crossword puzzle mysteries.
Publishers Weekly


When wealthy financier Lemuel Beale vanishes from his country estate while hunting, his daughter Martha, now exceedingly rich but alone in the world, joins with Thomas Kelman, a special investigator for the mayor of Philadelphia, in probing his disappearance. At the same time, a killer of young girls is prowling the City of Brotherly Love. One possible suspect is Eusapio Paladino, a famous clairvoyant and conjurer. Set in 1842 Philadelphia and juggling multiple plot lines and narrators, this debut entry in a new historical crime series by the coauthor of 11 Nero Blanc crossword puzzle mysteries is a feast for those fans who enjoy engaging characters and historical periods that have not been done to death. This may also attract readers who loved Caleb Carr's attention to detail in The Alienist and Jacqueline Winspeare's appealing sleuth, Maisie Dobbs.
Library Journal


As a serial killer stalks child prostitutes, a wealthy financier vanishes in 1842 Philadelphia. Martha Beale is a cosseted spinster, subservient first to her financier father, and then, when he's presumed drowned, to Owen Simms, his secretary. Beneath her quiet exterior, however, are ripples of defiance ready to break through. Soon enough, she's drawn to Thomas Kelman, an assistant to the mayor of Philadelphia, who's unwilling to write off her father's death as an accident. In his investigations of the Beale disappearance and the child murders, he discovers some disturbing connections to a woman in an insane asylum who was repeatedly raped by the brother who visits her under a false name. Meanwhile, Eusapio Paladino, a conjurer and clairvoyant, has been appearing at private parties delivering scandalous utterances about the crimes. Society beauty Emily Durand, who falls under his spell, is ruined when her husband is shot and Paladino is arrested. Learning that the late Durand was bankrupt, Emily rescues Martha from a drugged stupor brought on by Simms, who wants to marry her but can control her only with opium. Not till the end will defiant Martha and patient Kelman solve the sordid crimes hidden by the wealth and patina of high society. Biddle's debut offers some appealing characters, but a wealth of intriguing period detail ultimately overwhelms the mystery.
Kirkus Reviews