The Mystic's Accomplice

by Mary Miley

Overview

The first historical mystery in award-winning author Mary Miley's 1920s Chicago-set series introduces reluctant sleuth Maddie Pastore and takes readers into a dark and dangerous world of mobsters, speakeasies and seances.

It's 1924, and Maddie Pastore has it made. A nice house, a loving husband with a steady job - even if it is connected to Chicago's violent Torrio-Capone gang - and a baby on the way. But then Tommy is shot dead, and she learns her husband had a secret that turns her life upside down.

Penniless and grieving, Maddie is sure of only two things: that she will survive for the sake of her baby, and that she'll never turn to the mob for help. So when she's invited to assist a well-meaning but fraudulent medium, she seizes the chance. She's not proud of her work investigating Madam Carlotta's clients, but she's proud of how well she does it.

When Maddie unearths potential evidence of a dark crime, however, she faces a terrible dilemma: keep quiet and let a murderer go unpunished, or follow the trail and put herself and her baby in mortal danger . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448308804
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	10/25/2022
Series:	A Mystic's Accomplice mystery , #1
Edition description:	Main - Large Print
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mary Miley grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia, and worked her way through the College of William and Mary in Virginia as a costumed tour guide at Colonial Williamsburg. As Mary Miley Theobald, she has published numerous nonfiction books and articles on history, travel and business topics. As Mary Miley, she is the author of the award-winning Roaring Twenties mystery series.

Editorial Reviews

A little sparkle, a hint of sex, some wily Prohibition-era shenanigans, and one smart cookie in the lead make this a great read

Booklist on Renting Silence

Readers who enjoy Jacqueline Winspear and Carola Dunn will want to follow this series

Booklist on Silent Murders

04/12/2021

For Maddie Pastore, the narrator of this appealing series launch set in 1924 Chicago from Miley (the Roaring Twenties mysteries), the good times of the Jazz Age end with the gangland shooting death of her husband, who helped supply bootleg hooch to the city’s speakeasies. Homeless, pregnant, and with few resources, Maddie finds refuge at a shelter, where she gives birth to a son. Fearful she’ll be drawn back into the world of organized crime, Maddie has the good fortune to run into a friend who now styles herself Madame Carlotta Romany, a mystic. When Madame Carlotta offers Maddie a job aiding her séances, Maddie readily agrees, even if it means duping innocent people. Maddie begins to investigate clients’ backgrounds to augment her new employer’s visions, and when she stumbles across a murderer about to kill again, she must use every trick in the book to bring about some justice. Miley smoothly inserts real-life notables such as Al Capone and philanthropist Jane Addams into the twisty plot. This new historical mystery series is off to a flying start. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Miley smoothly inserts real-life notables such as Al Capone and philanthropist Jane Addams into the twisty plot. This new historical mystery series is off to a flying start - Publishers Weekly

Plentiful historical detail and a sparkling cast of characters - Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2021

Grieving pregnant widow Maddie Pastore didn't know what her husband did for a living, until the Chicago mob shows up at his 1924 funeral. She ends up broke and loses her house, but she's determined to make a living without calling on the mob for help. When the mystic Madam Carlotta, asks her to a séance, Maddie sees opportunity. She offers to research Carlotta's clients, and discovers she's good at digging through newspapers and wills and talking with servants. One of the mystic's clients always cancels her sessions, claiming illness; Maddie learns the woman lost her husband and a nephew to tragedy and she begins to worry that the client could be the target of a killer. Courageous Maddie uses her new skills to attempt to save a life and trap a murderer. VERDICT Miley ("Roaring Twenties" series) returns to the jazz age in this mystery introducing a remarkable amateur sleuth, widow, and mother. It skillfully combines the tantalizing atmosphere of a speakeasy- and mob-filled Chicago, historical figures, and an intriguing mystery.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

2021-03-17
A young widow’s job turns her into a determined sleuth in this series debut from Theobald.

Maddie Pastore was living happily in 1924 Chicago with a handsome husband and baby on the way. Unfortunately, her husband Tommy’s well-paying job driving for the mob ended when he was shot dead. Maddie’s money and her house vanish in an instant when Tommy’s first, and still legal, wife turns up, leaving Maddie broke. Desperate, she goes to Hull House waiting for little Tommy’s birth but fails to find a job until she meets Mrs. Burkholtzer, the mother of a school friend, who’s reinvented herself as the spiritualist Carlotta Romany. Beginning by playing a grieving widow at seances, Maddie graduates to doing research on upcoming clients while Freddy, a youth Madame Romany’s taken in, provides the ghostly effects. Maddie quickly takes to her job and enjoys chatting up people until she realizes that one of their clients may become the victim of a determined murderer. The wealthy Mr. Weidemann has left his house and half his estate to his wife, with most of the rest divided between two nephews. By chance Maddie runs into one nephew being thrown out of a speak-easy and then learns that the other one has drowned. She suspects that the persistent stomach problem that’s kept the widow Weidemann from coming to a seance stems from poisoning. Helping the widow may draw on every ounce of Madame Romany’s psychic abilities.

Plentiful historical detail and a sparkling cast of characters make up for the lack of mystery.

Kirkus Reviews