Murder at Beacon Rock

At the start of Maxwell's clever Gilded Newport mystery (after 2021's Murder at Wakehurst), intrepid reporter Emma Cross and her fiancé, Derrick Andrews, arrive one summer day in 1900 for dinner at yachtsman Edwin Morgan's Beacon Rock estate. While Derrick was born into this privileged world, Emma, though a distant cousin of the Vanderbilts, is aware that she "dangled from the nether regions of the family tree" and feels ill at ease. To escape the constant talk about the upcoming America's Cup races, she steps out for a breath of air and makes her way down to the pier. There, she discovers the lifeless body of a young woman floating in the water. As always, the wealthy close ranks when the police come to call, and it's up to Emma to investigate not only the original murder but those that follow. Series fans will be pleased that Emma and Derrick officially announce their intention to marry, leaving Emma to ponder how she will navigate the tedious and at times dangerous world of high society. Readers will look forward to the further adventures of Emma, who astutely illuminates the habits and mores of her day. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Sept.)

A peek inside the lives of the rich, famous, and dead in Newport's Gilded Age. Newspaper reporter Emma Cross, who grew up in Newport, has an in with the wealthy crowd since she's related to the Vanderbilts and engaged to well-connected Derrick Andrews. The couple has been invited to a small party at Beacon Rock, Edwin Morgan's estate, because of Derrick's support for yacht racing. Though Emma is very different from the spoiled ladies of the Four Hundred, she can hold her own. When she hears a strange noise while on a stroll after dinner with Lucy Carnegie, the only female member of the New York Yacht Club, they discover the body of a dead woman floating near the dock. Thus begins an investigation that the wealthy yachting families would love to see buried along with the body, which is finally identified as that of Lillian Fahey by a picture she carried with the inscription "To Wally Darling, from L" and a ring with two initials. Emma, who has a long history of crime-solving, works well with her childhood friend Jesse Whyte but not so much with resentful homicide investigator Gifford Myers, who is perhaps too subservient to the wealthy families who support the local economy. As she learns more about the clever and independent Lillian, whose father's designs make him a force in the yachting world, she becomes convinced that Lillian didn't commit suicide and starts looking for motives for murder. A middling mystery deftly contextualized by the backdrop of the still-standing Newport "cottages" of the period. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.