The Actress: A Martha Beale Novel

by Cordelia Frances Biddle

The Actress takes readers to Victorian-era Philadelphia with a tale of political machinations, revenge and murder. When Becky Grey Taitt’s abusive husband threatens to divorce her and keep their child, she agrees to infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters in exchange for the aid of powerful jurist, Alonzo Craig. After the judge’s scheme miscarries, Becky is trapped in a lethal criminal underworld while her friend Martha Beale and Martha’s beau, Thomas Kelman, struggle to rescue her. Praise for Cordelia Frances Biddle and the Martha Beale “An intricately orchestrated narrative that implicates the Brahmin class and the corruption that comes with their absolute power. Biddle wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time.” Publishers Weekly"Fresh and believable. Biddle knows her manner and her city, and shows both to great advantage." Cleveland Plain Dealer “The setting is unfolded as vividly as the characters, from the “commoners” working the textile mills to the unseemly criminal types of the upper-crust elite. A fine mix of history and mystery.” Booklistwww.CordeliaFrancesBiddle.com

442 pages, Paperback

Published December 14, 2015

About the author

Cordelia Frances Biddle is a feminist and historian. Fiction: Listen to Me: The Women of the Bible Speak Out; They Believed They Were Safe; the Martha Beale series set in 1840's Philadelphia, and Beneath the Wind. Nonfiction: Biddle, Jackson and a Nation in Turmoil, and Saint Katharine: the Life of Katharine Drexel.
The River Was Waiting will be published January 2026

With her husband, Steve Zettler, she wrote the Nero Blanc crossword puzzle series.

She would love hearing from you, and would be happy to meet with your book club or reading group.
Please contact her through her website: www.CordeliaFrancesBiddle.net