Something isn’t right with Eliza Hamilton.
You might say a woman like me, Alice Rhodes, would not know enough about such a fine lady as her. But you’d be wrong. I had the good fortune of knowing her when I was just widowed and the good ladies of the Widow Society took me in. She was one of them. Soon enough, I was on my feet and helping where I could, myself. We worked side by side, minding the children, doing laundry, and cleaning. When you work alongside someone, you get to know what kind of person they are. A woman like Eliza didn’t need to be worried with the likes of us poor widows, let alone work alongside us. But she did. That says a lot, indeed.
Still we are not closely acquainted, you might say. Not anymore. I’ve a business to run and little time for anything else. Several of the women I knew from the Widow Society gathered together one night and pooled our resources–enough to pay rent for a house on Pearl Street. Now we live together and craft woven goods, lace, and embroidered linens for many of the fine houses in New York City. Turns out, I have more than a talent for lacemaking, I am a good talker and dealer. I’ve grown many alliances through the city. I go to all the markets with samples of our handiwork and between all of us–those living at Pearl Street house–we know the workers in most of the fine houses.
So it goes.
After visiting with Mrs. General Hamilton to give her my condolences on the tragic loss of her husband, I noted a marked change in her demeanor. It might be simply the weight of her grief. I’ve seen it ruin many women–it could’ve ruined me. But I have a feeling that it’s more than that. I saw the bloody Alexander Hamilton as they carried him into the doctor’s house. And I can’t imagine her heartache. The whole city, it seems, turned out for his funeral. The streets were lined with mourners, including myself and the women I share my home with. We all felt the loss of him, but surely none as much as she. Yet, Mrs. General Hamilton stayed at home.
Something isn’t right with her. I just know it.
The Lace Widow, An Eliza Hamilton Mystery Book #1
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: December 2023
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Could Alexander Hamilton be at the center of a vast murder plot engulfing Old New York? As his widow, Eliza, pieces together the puzzle, she unearths a heartbreaking secret that threatens to tear her family apart.
New York, 1804. America’s beloved Alexander Hamilton lies dead after a duel with Aaron Burr. Meanwhile, Eliza Hamilton’s eighteen-year-old son, Alexander Jr., was seen fighting with a man in a tavern the night before his father’s duel and quickly comes under suspicion for murder when the man turns up dead.
Eliza searches for ways to clear her son’s name, even as she is grieving, but as she combs through her late husband’s papers, she finds evidence of a plot to steal money from the government during his tenure as secretary of state. Hamilton was accused of stealing that money, and it was a scandal that almost broke the family—but is Eliza now holding proof of Alexander’s innocence?
Deep in debt and despair, with eight children to support, Eliza turns to selling her handmade lace—and is drawn into a mysterious network of widow lacemakers who are intimately connected to New York’s high-society families. They know their dead husbands’ secrets—and soon, Eliza begins to piece together the truth.
There’s a dark plot connected with the duel, as one by one, witnesses to the bout are being killed. Now, Eliza must not only clear her husband’s and son’s names but keep herself out of the killer’s sights.
About the author
Mollie Ann Cox is the author of several popular mystery series, also writing under the pen name Maggie Blackburn and Mollie Cox Bryan. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. The Lace Widow is the first book where she’s combined her passion for history and mystery. She makes her home at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Crozet, Va. and is the mother of two nearly perfect daughters.