Strongwood
A Crime Dossier
Larry Millett
The seventh in Larry Millett’s thrilling mystery series pursues the tangled truth behind the killing of the spoiled young heir to an industrial fortune
It is 1903 in Minneapolis and amid allegations of seduction, rape, and blackmail, Michael Masterson is shot dead and Addie Strongwood goes on trial for first-degree murder. As the case unfolds in a welter of conflicting evidence and surprise discoveries, a jury must decide whether Addie acted in self-defense or killed her one-time lover with the coldest of calculation.
"Absorbing." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
The place is Minneapolis, the year is 1903, and Michael Masterson has fallen in love, or so he claims, with Addie Strongwood, a beautiful working-class girl with an interesting past and a mind of her own. But their promising relationship quickly begins to disintegrate before reaching a violent conclusion. Amid allegations of seduction, rape, and blackmail, Michael is shot dead and Addie goes on trial for first-degree murder. As the case unfolds in a welter of conflicting evidence and surprise discoveries, a jury must decide whether Addie acted in self-defense or killed her one-time lover with the coldest of calculation.
Reconstructing the case through trial testimony, newspaper stories, the journal of Addie’s flamboyant defense attorney, and her own first-person account as serialized in the Minneapolis Tribune, Larry Millett builds a suspenseful tale of love, money, betrayal, and death. Sherlock Holmes and Shadwell Rafferty, long known to readers from Millett’s previous mysteries, play crucial roles in the unraveling of the case, which also offers a glimpse into the sharply divided worlds of the rich and the poor at the dawn of the twentieth century.
$24.95 cloth/jacket ISBN 978-0-8166-9093-0
280 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4, 2020
Larry Millett is the author of six mystery novels—all but one set in Minnesota—that feature Sherlock Holmes and St. Paul detective Shadwell Rafferty, most recently The Magic Bullet, also published by the University of Minnesota Press. His nonfiction works include Lost Twin Cities and Once There Were Castles (Minnesota, 2011).
Absorbing.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
It’s a complicated and interesting story, nicely told with excerpts from newspapers, trial transcripts, diaries, and letters.
Scuttlebutt
It is with an architect’s eye that Millett has crafted his seventh Sherlock Holmes mystery, Strongwood.
Star Tribune
Strongwood is recommended for anyone who enjoys a good trial. This one is a humdinger!
Historical Novel Society
Brilliantly constructed, this novel is entirely unique and engaging.
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
Pioneer Press: Larry Millett's new mystery shifts style
"The place is Minneapolis, the year is 1903 . . . "
Star Tribune: She's tough, that Addie Strongwood
Pioneer Press: Larry Millett's new mystery shifts style
Review of STRONGWOOD, the latest in Millett's Minnestoa mystery series.
"The place is Minneapolis, the year is 1903 . . . "
Exclusive excerpt on Criminal Element of Strongwood: A Crime Dossier by Larry Millett.
Star Tribune: She's tough, that Addie Strongwood
FICTION: In Larry Millett’s seventh Sherlock Holmes mystery, a working girl goes on trial in the murder of her wealthy lover.