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Description of  Death of a New American: A Novel (A Jane Prescott Novel Book 2)

This is the second book in Fredericks’ Jane Prescott series. It is 1912, the Titanic has sunk killing 1500 people, suffragettes are marching in the streets of New York City, and there are four men running for President, including Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Jane Prescott is a ladies’ maid to Louise Benchley, who has agreed to wed William Tyler. Miss Benchley and Mrs. Benchley travel to her husband-to-be uncle’s country estate where the wedding will be held so the mothers of the bride and groom can finalize the plans. Jane is part of the Benchley entourage. But wedding plans go awry when the Tyler’s nanny, a young Italian-American girl, is murdered in the nursery where the window is flung open despite Mrs. Tyler’s orders that all windows and doors must be locked at all times. Jane is convinced by her friend, journalist, Michael Behan, to investigate the goings on in the Tyler house. He believes that Jane is uniquely situated to provide important clues to the murder. This is a slow moving mystery and the author takes her time in setting the scene and introducing characters, both old and new, to the reader. One thing the author does that might disappoint some readers is that she fails to tell the readers everything Jane finds out when she begins investigating the crime, thus, depriving the reader the ability to try to solve the mystery on her own. While this is part of a series, the author does a nice job in providing readers new to her series with enough detail to engage new readers in Jane’s investigation. Regardless of being stingy with the clues, this is an excellent read and should appeal to those who love historical mysteries.