{"id":5181,"date":"2023-08-17T05:04:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T12:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5181"},"modified":"2023-08-17T05:04:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T12:04:38","slug":"alyssa-maxwell-murder-at-the-elms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/alyssa-maxwell-murder-at-the-elms\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyssa Maxwell: Murder at the Elms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilded Newport #11<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Murder at the Elms<\/em> is the eleventh book in Alyssa Maxwell\u2019s Gilded Newport series, featuring intrepid newspaper reporter Emma Cross, who solves mysteries among Newport\u2019s elite.\u00a0 Emma is a poor relation of the Vanderbilts, so she is intimately familiar with the high society of Newport, while at the same time having sympathy for the working class.\u00a0 This is the first book I had read in the series, so I don\u2019t know the details of Emma\u2019s life and upbringing, but from the hints that are given in this novel, it sounds like her branch of the family fell on hard times, and she grew up in an area of Newport that was relatively far from the Gilded Age mansions.\u00a0 When this book begins, in 1901, she is newly married to newspaper heir Derrick Andrews, and together they own the Newport Messenger<\/em>.\u00a0 From what I gather, Derrick\u2019s family objected to his marrying her, I assume because she was a poor relation.\u00a0 But at the same time some of the working-class people among whom she grew up have rejected her because of her wealthy relations.\u00a0 So, Emma has a foot in both worlds, without really feeling a part of either.<\/p>\n

After returning from their honeymoon in Italy, Emma and Derrick have been invited to a musicale at The Elms, the newly-opened mansion belonging to coal baron Edward Berwind<\/a>, who was a real person.\u00a0 He owned the White Star ship line, to which the Titanic<\/em> belonged.\u00a0 Of course, at the time this book takes place, that was in the future.\u00a0 The Elms was one of the first houses to be wired for electricity.\u00a0 Berwind, in the novel, is a demanding taskmaster to his servants, allowing them no time off.\u00a0 Shortly before the musicale, the servants decide to go on strike.\u00a0 Only one, a Portuguese chambermaid named Ines, decides not to join the strike.\u00a0 She confides in Emma, who is there to cover the strike for the Messenger<\/em>, that she is all alone in America and would have nothing left if she lost her job.\u00a0 Emma is sympathetic, while at the same time agreeing with the other servants\u2019 decision to strike, and offers Ines a place in her home, Gull Manor, which Ines declines.\u00a0 The Berwinds promptly fire all the striking servants and replace them, giving time off to the new servants, which is what the strikers were asking for in the first place.<\/p>\n

At the musicale, Ines\u2019 body is found at the bottom of the coal tunnel, and Emma feels a sense of guilt that she didn\u2019t try harder to get her to come to Gull Manor.\u00a0 She and Derrick help Detective Jesse Whyte, a childhood friend of Emma\u2019s, to find the killer.\u00a0 Unlike police detectives in many series featuring amateur sleuths, Jesse welcomes Emma\u2019s help, although some of his colleagues do not.\u00a0 As it turns out, Ines was not as innocent, or as alone in the world, as Emma had thought at first.\u00a0 She had been going out to meet a man, Rudolfo, a Portuguese laborer who did menial jobs at The Elms.\u00a0 Soon Rudolfo is found dead as well.<\/p>\n

The mystery deepens when a diamond necklace, which supposedly belonged to Marie-Antoinette, is stolen from one of the Berwinds\u2019 guests, investment banker Rex Morton.\u00a0 Morton\u2019s wife, Silvie, did not even know her husband had the necklace, and he says he will be ruined if it is not found.\u00a0 It appears that Ines stole it from Morton\u2019s safe and hid it away before she was killed.\u00a0 Morton is not forthcoming about how the necklace came to be in his possession, and Emma and Derrick suspect he obtained it on the black market.\u00a0 The Mortons have tensions in their marriage, as do another couple who are guests of the Berwinds, Charles Gilchrist and his much-younger wife Kay.\u00a0 All these people act suspiciously and keep secrets from each other.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Orville Brown, a reporter for a rival newspaper, stirs up trouble among the Berwinds\u2019 servants.\u00a0 Amid the chaos, a gardener is killed by a falling statue, and Brown flees the scene, making him look guilty.\u00a0 Emma suspects he was the one behind the original servants\u2019 strike.\u00a0 As a former colleague of Jesse\u2019s, who has left the police, points out to Emma, though, Brown does not seem like the type who is capable of violence.\u00a0 Instead, he incites others to commit it.\u00a0 Emma reluctantly agrees.\u00a0 I suspect Brown has been a nemesis of hers in the earlier books.\u00a0 As it turns out, Brown is having an affair with an Irish maid who was one of the leaders of the strike.\u00a0 She was the one who had threatened Ines at the beginning.\u00a0 But Emma doesn\u2019t see her, either, as capable of murder.\u00a0 She suspects the gardener saw something when Ines was killed, and that his death is related to the others.\u00a0 And how are the murders and the theft of the necklace related?\u00a0 Emma is determined to find out.<\/p>\n

Murder at the Elms<\/em> is a delightful book, and a complex mystery with many twists and turns, and plenty of suspects.\u00a0 I love Emma\u2019s character.\u00a0 She is a fiercely independent woman with a strong sense of justice and great sympathy for the poor, despite being from an upper-class background.\u00a0 Since I haven\u2019t read the previous books, I don\u2019t know the history of her and Derrick\u2019s relationship, but it seems that they have known each other for a long time, and that she rejected an earlier proposal of his, probably because she wanted to maintain her independence.\u00a0 Emma and Derrick clearly love each other very much, but Emma is having a hard time adjusting to married life. \u00a0As she says, she\u2019s been single for longer than most women of the time.\u00a0 Although her age is not mentioned, I imagine her to be in her late twenties.\u00a0 She also feels that she and Derrick don\u2019t have a home that truly belongs to them both.\u00a0 Emma has her house, Gull Manor, but she feels awkward about her and Derrick living as a couple there, especially in front of her servants.\u00a0 Derrick has his bachelor lodgings, which were originally part of Emma\u2019s parents\u2019 house before they fell on hard times, but Emma doesn\u2019t feel right about living there.\u00a0 I would love to know that story, which I suspect is a complicated one.\u00a0 From the hints in this book, it sounds like Derrick bought the lodgings after Emma rejected his first proposal, to show his love for her.\u00a0 Much to my satisfaction, these problems are resolved by the end of the book, but to say more would be a spoiler.<\/p>\n

I admit that I was reluctant to take this book on at first, because it\u2019s the eleventh in a series where I hadn\u2019t read any of the others.\u00a0 There are other series where I didn\u2019t start with the first book, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever started so late in a series before.\u00a0 I had heard so many good things about this series, though, that I decided to try it, and I admit that I was tempted by the beautiful cover as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I read it.\u00a0 Since this book marks a new beginning for Emma and Derrick as a couple, it can be read on its own, and the hints Alyssa Maxwell gives about their earlier life make me all the more intrigued.\u00a0 I would love to go back and read the earlier books.\u00a0 I love the details that Maxwell gives the reader about life in Gilded Age Newport.\u00a0 She makes you want to go to Newport and visit the mansions she writes about.\u00a0 From what I gather, each book takes place in a different mansion.\u00a0 It is a great premise, and Emma is a strong protagonist.\u00a0 I highly recommend this book. \u2013 Vicki Kondelik<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gilded Newport #11 Murder at the Elms is the eleventh book in Alyssa Maxwell\u2019s Gilded Newport series, featuring intrepid newspaper reporter Emma Cross, who solves mysteries among Newport\u2019s elite.\u00a0 Emma is a poor relation of the Vanderbilts, so she is intimately familiar with the high society of Newport, while at the same time having sympathy … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1331,1332,10,1124,1333,273],"class_list":["post-5181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-alyssa-maxwell","tag-gilded-newport","tag-historical","tag-kensington","tag-murder-at-the-elms","tag-vicki-kondelik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5182,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions\/5182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}