“You look as uncomfortable as Susan in a sweater,” Aubrey chuckled.

“You’re not wrong about that,” Harriet agreed, recalling the time she and her brother had wrestled her cat, named Susan B Anthony, into a sweater knitted by their friend Pearl Bartlett. At present, Aubrey’s remark was in reference to Harriet wearing a woman’s frilly bonnet—something she would do in only the direst of circumstances.

“Yes, well … a sudden gust off the lake took me by surprise,” she explained. “In an instant, I had to choose whether to grab my hat before it was taken by the wind or swerve to avoid colliding with another bicyclist. And before you ask, yes, I found it. But not before it had been run over by a hansom cab in the middle of Michigan Avenue. And so, my brother, I must endure the insult of wearing this dreadful, silly bonnet for the next twenty minutes. Which is precisely how long it should take me to ride to the haberdashery and shop for a new hat.”

P. Pennington’s Fine Men’s Wear occupied a modest storefront on State Street in the shadow of the elevated train. Harriet had discovered the shop after passing by one day and noticing a woman trying on a gentleman’s jacket through the front window. The sight was startling to say the least. A woman wearing a man’s suit of clothing! Harriet’s heart practically leapt from her chest. How marvelous to see another woman preferring a man’s wardrobe over long, tight-waisted skirts and impractical shoes that would impede her ability to chase down criminals.

A bell’s pleasant tinkling announced her arrival. She was immediately greeted by Percival, the P. in the shop’s name. When he and Harriet had first met, he joked that the initial stood for Proprietor, but at some point during Harriet’s half-dozen subsequent visits, he had revealed his given name in exchange for hers.

“Harriet! Good God! What’s happened! Are you quite unwell?” He clucked concernedly, like a mother over a fevered child.

“Aside from the stifling temperature, I’m quite well, indeed.”

“I think not, dear heart. You are surely suffering from heat stroke. For that is the only conceivable reason that Harriet Morrow, acclaimed Chicago detective, would ever be caught wearing that sorry excuse for a hat.”

After explaining to Percival what happened to her bowler, she asked him to measure her for a replacement, adding, “Black, of course. And it’s pointless to show me anything priced more than four dollars.”

Three dollars and eighty cents later, Harriet, her new hat snuggly in place, pedaled toward the Prescott Agency. She had a full day ahead of her. A muckraker had been found murdered in a southside tenement, and she had been assigned the case—her second as a junior field operative. And, although she didn’t yet know it, unmasking the killer would test her to the limit.

THE CASE OF THE MURDERED MUCKRAKER
Series Name: A Harriet Morrow Investigates Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: January 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

Harriet Morrow, a spunky, bike-riding, independent, lesbian P.I. in turn-of-the-20th century Chicago, is back on the case in this brilliant historical mystery inspired by a real-life Windy City detective – from the acclaimed author of the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and Lefty Award-nominated Devil’s Chew Toy. For fans of Lev AC Rosen, Ashley Weaver, and Stephen Spotswood.

Chicago, 1898. In the midst of the Progressive Era, twenty-one-year-old junior detective Harriet Morrow is determined to prove she’s more than a lucky hire as the Prescott Agency’s first woman operative. But her latest challenge—a murder case steeped in scandal—could become a deadly setback . . .

As the Windy City thaws from a harsh winter, Harriet Morrow finds herself doubting her investigative skills when she’s assigned to solve a high-stakes murder case well above her pay grade. And there’s also a catch. Harriet must somehow blend in as an “unremarkable” young woman—one who feels confident in skirts, not men’s clothing—on a quest to infiltrate the immigrant community at the center of the grisly crime . . .

The mystery has more twists and turns than her morning bike commute, with a muckraker found murdered in a southside tenement building after obtaining evidence of a powerful politician’s corruption. While Harriet gains the trust of the tenement’s women residents to gather clues, the undercover mission reveals an innocent mother might have been framed for the crime—and exposes ties to another violent death . . .

Harriet soon realizes she has few allies as new dangers explode around her. Enlisting the help of Matthew McCabe, her only true confidante at the agency, and growing more protective of her budding relationship with the lovely Barbara Wozniak, Harriet will need to survive rising threats to assert her place in a world that’s quick to dismiss her—and out a killer who’s always one step ahead . . .

About the author
Rob Osler is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the historical mystery series, Harriet Morrow Investigates, which includes THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAID (book #1, a Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review) and THE CASE OF THE MURDERED MUCKRAKER (book #2, also a Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review). For his other work, Rob has won the 2025 Anthony and Left Coast Crime Awards, the 2022 MWA Robert L. Fish Award, and was a 2024 Edgar Award Finalist. Rob lives in California with his husband and a tall gray cat.