Greetings, fair reader. I am midwife Rose Carroll, although some in our town have been regarding me as more detective than midwife of late.

It has been a warm Sixth Month here in Amesbury, so my friend Bertie Winslow and I have taken more than one picnic supper to the shady shores of nearby Lake Gardner. We were both beyond concerned when someone brought false witness and caused her to come under suspicion of murder for a time.

At the lake we once spied the famous Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier who stopped by of an early evening as he was out for a carriage ride. He’s been an occasional mentor to me, but this time he had an important piece of information to relay about a man with the odd name of Adoniram, a real suspect in the recent homicide.

My friend and pregnant client Jeanette Papka also slipped me the content of a few overheard conversations bearing on the case. She is blind, thee sees, and many believe that also makes her brain deficient. Nothing could be further from the truth. Exceedingly intelligent, she is fully educated and works as a trilingual interpreter in the courts.

Detective Kevin Donovan and I needed all the help we could get this time around to unravel the many threads of what really happened to society matron Mayme Settle and to clear the name of my dear Bertie. Even Kevin’s young son Sean was able to assist us with his excellent memory.

We hope thee enjoys the story. Our author will be happy to give one fortunate commenter a signed copy of the book.


Edith is giving away one (1) print copy of Judge Thee Not. Leave a comment below for your chance to win. Contest ends October 2, 2019 and US entries only. Good luck everyone!


You can read more about Rose in Judge Thee Not, the fifth book in the “Quaker Midwife” cozy historical mystery series, released September 10, 2019.

Quaker midwife Rose Carroll must fight bias and blind assumptions to clear the name of a friend when a murderer strikes in nineteenth-century Massachusetts . . .

No stranger to judgmental attitudes in her small town of Amesbury, Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is nonetheless stunned when society matron Mayme Settle publicly snubs her good friend Bertie for her nontraditional lifestyle. When Mrs. Settle is later found murdered—and a supposed witness insists Bertie was spotted near the scene of the crime—the police have no choice but to set their sights on the slighted woman as their main suspect.

Rose is certain her friend is innocent of the heinous deed, and when Rose isn’t busy tending to her duties as midwife, she enlists the help of a blind pregnant client—who’s endured her own share of prejudice—to help her sift through the clues. As the two uncover a slew of suspects tied to financial intrigues, illicit love, and an age-old grudge over perceived wrongs, Rose knows she’ll have to bring all her formidable intelligence to bear on solving the crime. Because circumstantial evidence can loom large in small minds, and she fears her friend will soon become the victim of a grave injustice . . .

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About the author
Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with nineteen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and an elderly cat, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.

All comments are welcomed.