The Widow Hamilton: An Eliza Hamilton Mystery
As fans of the Broadway musical know, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton lived fifty years after her husband’s tragically early death. Over those decades, Eliza cared for her large family, initiated charitable ventures, and dedicated her days to promoting her beloved Alexander’s extensive legacy. In the second volume (after The Lace Widow) of Cox’s reimaginings of Eliza’s early widowhood, she also solves murders. Eliza turns out to be a good choice for amateur sleuth. A respectable and intelligent woman, she’s calmly persistent and deeply loyal to her many friends, and she reluctantly acknowledges that the name of Mrs. General Hamilton carries weight in New York City. Bitter that her husband’s killer, the scalawag Aaron Burr, managed to evade charges, Eliza wants to ensure other victims receive justice.
During winter 1805, while despairing over her finances, Eliza discovers that one of the younger members of a group of craftswomen that she’d befriended was murdered, her body found outside a gentlemen’s club in Lower Manhattan. Rebecca Perkins had used to dress as a man to deliver the women’s handiwork to customers, believing the transactions would be taken more seriously, but Eliza knows no motive for the crime. While searching for her, another lacemaker had also vanished, which greatly worries Eliza and company. The pacing, initially slow, ramps up once the fate of Rebecca’s missing friend becomes known and Eliza gets closer to uncovering hidden connections between the pair and the places they’d traveled. (One can’t help but feel for her carriage driver, with frequent two-hour rides between the Grange, Eliza’s house in Harlem, and her investigation downtown—all in freezing weather and without a salary.) Though light on historical detail in places, the mystery’s satisfyingly crafted, with Eliza’s teenage sons and daring older sister Angelica, visiting from London, all pitching in to help.
