I heard about Barbara Hamilton's Abigail Adams mystery series a few years ago, and just now got around to reading the first in the series last month, thanks to the wonderfully motivating TBR Pile Challenge. I'm so happy I did--I admire Abigail Adams so much and her voice in The Ninth Daughter was marvelously real and true to the historical Adams as I imagine her.
The mystery itself was absolutely spot-on--I didn't finger the murderer until seconds before the narrator did, which is gratifying, and Hamilton skillfully wove in actual events as well as interesting historical possibilities.
The action takes place in 1773--after the Boston Massacre but before the Boston Tea Party. The Massachusetts Colony is becoming increasingly rebellious, and Sam Adams and his Sons of Liberty figure prominently in the plot, as do Puritan fanatics, English soldiers, rebels and Tories. I love to read about this time in history, and it was particularly fun to read such a well-written, historically-intelligent, and all around interesting mystery.
Definitely The Ninth Daughter was the perfect combination of two of my favorite genres, historical fiction and mystery.
This book is also part of the Historical Fiction Challenge. I've now read 6 books in this challenge this year and this is one of the best!
Oh, darn it! Another mystery series that looks good to me! Mystery is a new genre for me, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I love Abigail Adams.
ReplyDeleteSounds fascinating! I also enjoy some historical mysteries from time to time!
ReplyDeleteAbigail Adams was such an interesting person in real life. She is an interesting person for a choice of a heroine of a mystery. I am curious to know why the author choose her as a subject for these books.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the idea of figuring it out as the character does is great, then I looked at the cover properly and noticed the time period. I wouldn't mind learning more about the period and from what you've said it sounds like the historical information would be accurate enough. Very tempting.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of these before. My mom loves both Abigail Adams and mysteries so this looks like a great series to get her started on.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds amazing. I hadn't heard of Abigail Adams until I watched the miniseries about John Adams a few years ago. Since then I've been wanting to learn more about both of them.
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