Into the Suffering City by Bill LeFurgy is a fast-paced, emotionally immersive story that combines originality and historical detail to explore the lives of people living in Baltimore during the early 1900s. Dr. Sarah Kennecott and private detective, Jack Harden team up to solve the mystery of a murdered prostitute. There are suspects galore and time is running out to find the killer.
Into the Suffering City: A Novel of Baltimore by Bill LeFurgy Published by High Kicker Books on 04/15/2020
Genres: Detective/Sleuth, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 318
Baltimore, 1909. The city is jumping with danger and excitement. New thrills are everywhere: cars, cocaine, ragtime music, moving pictures. Old troubles also thrive, including murder, corruption, and the painful divisions of gender, class, and race.
Dr. Sarah Kennecott is on the autism spectrum—a trait that is unidentified and unappreciated at the time. Her passion is justice for murder victims, and after getting fired for looking too closely into the killing of a showgirl, she refuses to back down from the investigation. Sarah forms an unlikely bond with Jack Harden, a tormented, down-on-his-luck private detective. Jack pushes the case into Baltimore’s seedy underworld, a vitally corrupt realm of saloons, brothels, and burlesque theaters.
When Sarah and Jack pull the pieces together, they discover a stunning pair of secrets, each of which is worth killing to keep.
"Into the Suffering City" is a fast-paced, emotionally immersive story that combines originality and historical detail to explore the lives of people living in Baltimore during the early 1900s.
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My thoughts on
Into the Suffering City by Bill Lefurgy is a historical fiction detective story set in 1909 Baltimore.
*See synopsis above*
The author sets the scene with in-depth descriptions of Baltimore. His love of this historic city shines through in his well-researched writing.
The dual perspectives of Jack Harden and Dr. Sarah Kennecott tell the story. Jack is a down-on-luck private detective with PTSD. Sarah is a doctor trying to find respect in a man’s world, as well as dealing with the idiosyncrasies of autism. It was intriguing to see how autism was perceived in the early days.
The first chapters of the book moved a little slow, as characters, plotlines, and story arcs developed. After that, the characters and the mystery grabbed me and carried me through to the end.
I enjoyed a peek into the early science of fingerprinting and evidence collection. It’s rewarding to see how far we have come in respect for females in the workplace, even if we have much further to go.
The story has all the usual characters from this period: hustlers, mobsters, crooked politicians, and police officers on the take. Given the plot, these characters fit right in.
Readers who love historical fiction and mystery will enjoy Into the Suffering City.
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Into the Suffering City by Bill LeFurgy
About Bill LeFurgy
Bill LeFurgy is a professional historian and archivist who has studied the seamy underbelly of urban life, including drugs, crime, and prostitution, as well as more workaday matters such as streets, buildings, wires, and wharves. He has put his many years of research experience into writing gritty historical fiction about Baltimore, where he lived for over a decade. It remains his favorite city.
Bill has graduate degrees from the University of Maryland and has worked at the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore City Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, and the Library of Congress. He has learned much from his children and grandchildren, including grace, patience, emotional connection, and the need to appreciate different perspectives from those on the autism spectrum and with other personality traits that are undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or unexplained.
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Into the Suffering City by Bill LeFurgy
Into the Suffering City: A ...Shop on Amazon Kindle Into the Suffering City: A ...Shop on Amazon Paperback
Also available on Barnes & Noble and The Book Depository.
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