Rosemary Simpson: Death Takes the Lead
Gilded Age #9
Death Takes the Lead is the ninth book in Rosemary Simpson’s Gilded Age Mystery series set in New York City in the 1890s, with protagonists Prudence MacKenzie and Geoffrey Hunter. Prudence comes from one of New York’s wealthiest families–one of Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred. Rebelling against the life of a society lady, she has passed the New York bar and become one of the first female lawyers in the state. Geoffrey is an ex-Pinkerton agent and a Civil War veteran. He is the son of a Southern plantation owner and, after seeing the horrors of slavery firsthand, has run away from his home and fought for the North. Both characters are rebels against the society in which they were born, and the two are now partners in an investigative law firm. A slow-burning romance has developed between them, and, I am pleased to say, without giving away too much, this book takes it to a new level.