Deadly Crossroads

Dr Josiah Bartlett #1

by Daniel Bjork

19th century America

Doctor Josiah Bartlett has grown fat tending to the mundane needs of the people in Concord, Massachusetts.

But the bucolic bliss is rudely shattered by the tragic death of Mary Chase, a vivacious young woman who teaches in the local school and a close friend of Louisa May Alcott, the soon-to-be author.

Mary is believed to have drowned herself after she is fished out of the Concord River.

But when Doctor Bartlett examines the bloated and rigid corpse, he finds her head caved in.

Could the suicide be murder?

Lack of hard evidence leads the local sheriff to dismiss Doctor Bartlett when he tried to persuade him to open a murder investigation.

He warns Bartlett to leave the law to him.

But the old doctor relishes his new self-appointed role and calls on the town’s intellectuals to help him interpret Mary’s diary.

It soon reveals an unnamed lover who lives amid the bright lights of Boston.

It’s not long before a very different picture of Mary begins to emerge – one of a hot-blooded young female whose true nature and vitality has had a dramatic, sometimes awful, impact on the lives of the men she has been involved with.

Before they know it, another brutal killing rocks the town.

Is it linked to Mary’s death?

Or is it just a terrifying coincidence?

Doctor Bartlett must race to the heart of the matter, before his own life reaches a Deadly Crossroads…

Genres: Mystery

145 pages, ebook

Published August 9, 2016

Reviews

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

GNA I received a free electronic copy of this novel on August 8th from Netgalley, Daniel Bjork, and Endeavour Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, for sharing your work with me.

And this is an exciting historical novel, set in Concord, Massachusetts, with a population of about 2,000, in October, 1864. And this is a novel set around people we are familiar with at that place and time in history - Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Thoreau brothers at Walden Pond, Louisa May Alcott, who is rumored to be best friends with our victim, Mary Chase, Waldo Emerson. The tale is told in first person from the viewpoint of the town physician, Josiah Bartlett, who at first accepts the general consensus that the death of Mary as a suicide, but on further thought and with the evidence of her diary, is fairly certain this is murder. And the further he delves into the life of Mary Chase, the more certain he is that she was a victim of murder. Very interesting book. I would recommend to those who enjoy historical fiction and mysteries.

My favorite quote from this book: "Gossip- true, half true, half false, false- was an indispensable part of our daily life, our village character."

pub Aug 5, received Aug 8th

Endeavour Press
Not available at B&Sept 3

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an interesting historical mystery set in Concord, year 1852. The main character, Josiah, is a doctor who doesn't believe a young girl killed herself. He decides to do some investigating on his own.

In his investigations, we get to meet some well known characters of that time such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott. I liked that and thought it was a nice addition to the story.

This was a bit dark of a mystery and slow at times. Yet I did enjoy the book. The main character and his daughter were well developed and entertaining.

I plan on reading more of this series and would recommend this book if you like historical mysteries!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1852 Concord Massachusetts Doctor Josiah Bartlett is called out to the potential suicide of Mary Chase. Later he has his suspicions and starts to investigate the shadowy figure that he sees as Mary's character, slowly discovering the person she was and who killed her.
This is a story that slowly unravels, and drew me in, with some good descriptions of the characters with a good tale.
A NetGalley Book

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amateur Sleigh at Work

For me, the idea for this book was more interesting than the execution. Josiah Bartlett, a portly, pompous, middle-aged physician investigates the apparent suicide of young Mary Chase. The book is populated by the luminaries of Nineteenth Century New England --Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and her eccentric father, Bronson. I spent most of the book trying to decide whether this Josiah Bartlett was a descendent of the signer of the Declaration of Independence and decided he probably was not r he would have mentioned it.

Probably my favorite aspect of the book was the mostly successful attempt to make it read as though it had been written in the 1850's. A close second was Bjork's (in Bartlett's voice) observations about the changing culture and role of women at the time.

Unfortunately, not much actually happens in the book, which isn't ideal for a mystery. In addition the book is so poorly edited that in places it's difficult to read.

There are more books in the series, but I won't be reading them.

[Ionia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. All of the characters were well drawn and complimented one another nicely. The dialogue was very well written and the mystery keeps getting deeper as the book moves along. I particularly liked the relationship between the main character and his daughter. They brought a lot of humour to the story, relieving some of the darkness in this book.

For a murder mystery, I thought this was actually pretty original. That seems to be harder and harder to find. The end is emotional, but not overdone and I walked away feeling like I'd had a good entertaining afternoon of reading. I will definitely read more work by this author.

If you like mysteries that take a while to build, strong story lines and solid characters (and who doesn't) then this is a book that you don't want to miss.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[Keith Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novel, the first in a series of five,centres on the small town of Concord near Boston in the years before the American Civil War. A young woman is found drowned and suicide is suspected. The portly local doctor, Josiah Bartlett, suspects that murder is more likely and begins a desultory investigation.

What is of interest here is not the investigation, but for me the fact that Concord was the home of so many famous Americans, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Waldo Emerson, Louisa M Alcott and her (at the time) eccentric vegan father, Bronson.

There was no real surprise in the outcome, but this was a pleasant enough pot-boiler.

[Cynthia Varady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to Concord, Massachusettes in 1852. The mysterious death of a young woman has the local doctor investigating. Filled with twists, turns, literary personalities, and food, Deadly Crossroads by Daniel Bjork is sure to thrill history buffs, lit nerds, and mystery fans alike.

[Sue Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this at the beginning. Interesting and identifiable characters. But in the middle it became crude and not really believable for the time period. Skimmed through the rest.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting how the author included so many historical characters into this mystery. I didn't know all these luminaries lived in the Concord area at one time.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it. Deadly Crossroads is set in the America in the middle of the 19th century. A local doctor tries to solve the mystery of a young girl's death, she has drowned. Dr Josiah Bartlett is getting older and not enjoying his work so much. He becomes involved with the case but is never sure he should be investigating what happened. The death was recorded as a suicide and there was no inquest. The story weaves though various suspects, who could be the murderers, if in fact, it was that. A crime story set many years ago makes the book different, the pace is slower and the characters more defined. I am not sure about the ending but I need to keep in my mind the period the book was set in. I would read more by this author.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

An atmospheric story set in 19th. Century Massachusetts.
Dr. Bartlett discovers a well known woman of Concord, Mary Chase has been murdered although it was originally classed as suicide.
After unsuccessfully persuading the local sheriff to investigate, Bartlett sets out to find the truth with the help of Mary's diary and local townspeople.
Another killing is reported and the chase is on to find out the killer before it's too late.
Recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Endeavour via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read was great

[Rebecca S. Cain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as Good As I Had Hoped

Very tiring dialogue. I got so tired of reading strangely worded sentences I nearly stopped reading several times. The use of multiple historical figures did not improve the story. All in all, a disappointmemt!