The Solace of Stars: A Hanneke Bauer Mystery
This second in a new series, inspired by the author’s work at an outdoor ethnic museum in Wisconsin, introduces Hanneke Bauer, a Pomeranian immigrant from Prussia. The feel of 1855 America is beautifully captured, and the reader feels the author’s experience and dedication to her subject.
Hanneke Bauer lives on her small Wisconsin farm, surrounded by other Pomeranian immigrants. On the other side of the divide are the Irish Catholics, and some of the plotline develops from this. But, as Hanneke discovers, there is more than enough tension to go around within her own Lutheran community.
A mere four months ago, she arrived in Wisconsin to find her husband, Fridolin, dead, and herself being hounded off his farm. But she is a woman who does not allow herself personal weakness, and two things keep her anxiety under wraps – constant knitting while walking, and asking the starry night sky for advice from Fridolin. When a neighboring farmer is stabbed to death, the daughter, Jacobine, witnesses the event, and Hanneke takes her under her wing. Subsequently, Jacobine’s mother goes missing, several attempts are made on Jacobine’s life, and Hanneke reluctantly concludes that someone from her community might be responsible, perhaps even someone she knows.
This is a gently paced mystery with informative details about Pomeranian culture, customs, food, and dress. Ernst weaves in snippets about historical reformer, Carl Schurz, and a connection to the Underground Railroad, which adds diverse interest. Readers are immersed in the everyday hardscrabble farming life, and the villain certainly wasn’t obvious to me. Hanneke has to sort through clues and connections that don’t make sense to her, and by the end the way is clear for her to become a veritable amateur sleuth in future books. This unusual mystery makes it well worth investigating the first Hanneke novel.
