Beacon Street Mourning: A Fremont Jones Mystery (Fremont Jones Mysteries) [signed] [first edition]

Deadly crime turns to personal tragedy for the normally intrepid Fremont Jones in the latest of Dianne Day's acclaimed series of historical mysteries.Still not completely recovered from the two broken legs she suffered in her previous adventure, Fremont Jones learns that her father, Leonard Pembroke Jones, is gravely ill and hospitalized in Boston. Deeply distressed, and always suspicious of her detested stepmother, Augusta, Fremont sets out at once with her life-partner, Michael Archer, to be at her father's side. Their arrival finds Leonard slightly improved, and despite his physician's doubts about the possibility of a full recovery, he is sent home-much to Fremont's dismay-only to die shortly thereafter in the middle of the night. Could Augusta be complicit in his illness? Fremont is certain of it, and she immediately begins to search the house for possible poisons. But then Augusta herself is shot to death, which would seem to exonerate her from blame-or does it? Determined to uncover the truth, Michael and Fremont embark on their own private investigation and soon discover potential suspects in some of the least likely places.Rich in the same period atmosphere for which Dianne Day's previous books have been so highly praised, Beacon Street Mourning also adds fascinating new dimensions to the character of Fremont Jones. Thrust back into the world of her childhood-the proper Bostonian world from which she fled just a few short years ago-Fremont is forced to face previously unacknowledged feelings and hidden fears. And at the same time, she must use her hard-won skills as an objective investigator to solve the most personal case of her career. In her most intensely charged novel to date, Day proves once more that she is not only an extremely skilled weaver of intricate puzzles but also an expert in plumbing the depths of human emotion.