Frances McNamara

Emily Cabot, one of the first female graduate students at the University of Chicago, invites her mother and brother to join her in the city to attend the 1893 World's Fair, along with her teacher Dr. Stephen Chapman. At the fair, Chapman turns pale as a ghost when he runs into a woman who turns out to be an old flame. When her husband is killed and Chapman is found by the body, it is up to Emily and a rotating cast of advisers - some recognizable...

After Emily Cabot is expelled from the University of Chicago, she finds work at Hull House, established by Jane Addams. There she quickly becomes involved in the political and social problems of the immigrant community. But when a man who works for a sweatshop owner is murdered in the Hull House parlour, Emily must determine whether one of her colleagues is responsible, or whether the real reason for the murder is revenge for a past tragedy in her...

Exhausted after the tumult of the Pullman Strike of 1894, Emily Cabot is looking forward to a restful summer visit to Cape Cod. She has plans to collect "beasties" for the Marine Biological Laboratory, alongside other visiting scientists from the University of Chicago. She also hopes to enjoy romantic clambakes with Dr. Stephen Chapman, although they must keep an important secret from their friends. But her summer takes a dramatic turn when she finds...

"In October 1918, the Allies are winning the war in Europe, but the Spanish flu is rampant at home. In Chicago, Emily's husband is fighting the virus at Cook County Hospital. Their daughter has dropped her social ambitions to study sculpture while their doctor son has returned from France injured in body and spirit. Emily is shocked to learn her children were friends of the victim in a scandalous murder. The wife of a notorious gambling king shot...

"With the United States on the verge of entering World War I, tensions run high in Chicago in the Spring of 1917, and the city simmers with anti-German sentiment mixed with virulent patriotism. Shockingly, amateur sleuth Emily Cabot is present when a young Chicago woman, who is about to make a brilliant society marriage, is murdered. Was her death retaliation for her pacifist activities, or was it linked to her romantic entanglements? Emily has a...