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Beacon Street Mourning |
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 Beacon Street Mourning byDianne Day Doubleday Books ISBN 0385486103 288 pages, September 2000 Reviewed by Susan McBride Read our author interview Read our review of Death Train to Boston Beacon Street Mourning is the sixth in the Fremont Jones historical mystery series by Dianne Day, and the title perfectly suits the air of melancholy that permeates the pages. As the book opens, Fremont is grieving the loss of her good health. She's hobbled by a pair of broken legs sustained in a train wreck in Death Train to Boston and moves about carefully with canes. She hasn't heard a word from her father since her brush with death, which worries her enough to forward a missive to an acquaintance at his bank in Boston. The response - that her father is dying -sends her packing and hurrying home with her partner and lover, Michael Archer, at her side. Fremont is understandably nervous at going back to a place she left so decisively four years earlier. And the thought of enduring the company of her stepmother, Augusta, doesn't exactly appeal to her. Especially when Fremont is suspicious of Augusta's hand in her father's illness. Why, for instance, had Leonard Pembroke Jones' long-time physician not been caring for him? Why had Augusta let go of the houseful help and kept him sequestered at Beacon Street with only a newly-hired maid to keep an eye on things? Though historical mysteries are not my usual fare, I was introduced to The Strange Files of Fremont Jones last year and found myself intrigued by the atmosphere Day conjures up in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, along with the character of Fremont Jones herself, a female pioneer of sorts. The same adept use of place is evident in Beacon Street Mourning to create the cloud of grief and suspicion that hovers above the plot like fog off Boston's Back Bay. Fremont is an interesting creature to observe. Despite her relationship with Michael, her staunch independence seems to isolate her more often than not. Beacon Street Mourning is a love letter from an author to her character, a thoughtful exploration of a woman who has to come to terms with her actions and who must reconcile herself to the past before it's too late. |
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