Amanda Flower’s charming historical mystery is set in the household of Emily Dickinson and her family around 1855. The main character is not Emily herself (though she is a strong second) but the new maid in the Dickinson household, Willa Noble. One of the more fascinating aspects of this novel is Flower’s simple ability to put the reader into a different mindset. Willa, who has always been poor, is grateful for the work and for a roof over her head. Her simple expectations are so different from the highly enlarged expectations of the early 21st century.
The other revelation is simply Emily Dickinson herself, who hires Willa on a whim and whose character is delineated, quite believably, by Flower as intelligent, unconventional and clear and direct in thought. While the household puts up with her writing “hobby” it’s also clear they protect her, especially her sister Lavinia. Flower has added Emily’s (real) dog, Carlo, to the mix, a dog that was probably a Newfoundland, one of the largest and friendliest of breeds.
As Flower is a mystery writer, however, she also supplies a heartbreaking mystery. After Willa has begun work and moved in, her brother, Henry, turns up outside her window one night, telling her he has wonderful plans for her future. She sends him away and shortly after, he’s discovered dead at the stables where he worked, the apparent victim of a horse gone rogue. Willa, who knew of her brother’s kindness and expertise around animals, is not so sure it was an accident.
Emily, who takes matters in hand, insists they investigate, and the two women start their detective work at the stable where Henry died. They discover some clues that point in the direction of murder as well as a stable boss who seems abrupt and unkind and who sends them on their way.
Putting the book into the context of the times, the issues that were front and center were abolition and the coming Civil War. Emily’s father is finishing a term as a U.S. representative in Washington, D.C. and the women of the household, including Willa, take a trip to Washington as Mr. Dickinson wraps up his term and wishes his family present. Back home the household is packing for a move to a new house and Willa is taken away by Emily at the extreme displeasure of Willa’s housekeeper boss.
That sets the stage, but what was really front and center for me was not the gentle mystery but the character of the two women who are investigating it. Willa is obviously grieving but she pushes herself through her grief to work and to be a good companion for Emily when she requires and requests it. The benefits to Willa are many – she gets to take a trip to Washington, leaving Amherst for the first time and boarding a train. All these things are made new in Flower’s deft storytelling hands.
Also made new, to a degree, is Emily’s poetry. Scraps of paper are everywhere around her and at one point Willa discovers a scrap with the words of the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” on it. Flower takes the reader to a moment when these words, which must have been both radical and odd for their time, were new, and not familiar as they are now. It’s quite a feat on Flower’s part.
I very much enjoyed this book and hope it will be the beginning of a series. The working bond between Willa and Emily was beautifully drawn, and I feel there is more shading to come.