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Eleanor Roosevelt #18
Murder in Georgetown
Sargent Peavy is a Federal Treasury Board member, a prominent banker... and a prodigious womanizer. So when he's found dead in his Georgetown home, the police suspect his jilted mistress. Jessica Dee must be guilty. She had the means and the motive-and no alibi. Open and shut case? Hardly…
276 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
1 person is currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Elliott Roosevelt
63 books48 followersElliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990) was an United States Army Air Forces officer and an author. Roosevelt was a son of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 28, 2022
This was something a little different. This series has our FLOTUS, Eleanor Roosevelt, using her sleuthing skills to assist in solving a murder. This was #18 of a on-going series. While it was a quick and amusing read, I doubt I would hang in there for many other installments.
August 10, 2016
I do like these historical mysteries. They are a quick, and relaxing read. A good story with familiar "faces" if you will thrown in.
October 29, 2022
Set in 1935 at the end of FDR's first term in office, this book covers the mores of the times more than the goings on in the White House, historically speaking. Social Security is being considered by Congress, very slowly. Everyone seems to be having an affair with someone else, married or not. Divorce and being gay are still considered worse than open or discreet affairs. What a world! It seems the ten commandments are considered to refer to other people. There was an interesting account of Eleanor and Lorena Hicks. It explained a lot about Eleanor and Franklin D, and it made sense, not in today's terms, but in 1930's terms, evidently.
August 30, 2018
#18: when a member of the Federal Trust Board is murdered, his wife accuses Jessica Dee, a young Polish Jewish refugee brought up in Scotland and working for Senator Huey Long, the Kingfisher, and reporting his activities to FDRs people. Eleanor had been partially responsible for placing Jessica on Long’s office, feels she is innocent. Fraudulent banking, hired guns, promiscuous men and women, Irish mob, big wigs in government and military are all entangled in the Peacy and two additional murders.
April 18, 2020
Political intrigue is at the base of this novel set in 1935. FDR's political consultant has had Eleanor write a letter to get Jessica Dee employed by Senator Huey Long. Then a former lover is killed and Jessica is accused. The situation starts getting sticky as Eleanor begins investigating between appointments on her busy schedule.
As always in these books, the history with its events and personalities takes center stage. It is a fast easy, enjoyable book to read. Eleanor is an interesting, remarkable woman.
As always in these books, the history with its events and personalities takes center stage. It is a fast easy, enjoyable book to read. Eleanor is an interesting, remarkable woman.
October 12, 2019
Another good Eleanor Roosevelt mystery. I am sad to say I have read almost all of them. It does reinforce the violence and corruption of this time period. Is today really so different? Huey Long, Joe Kennedy, and Douglas MacArthur are many of the historical figures featured in this book as are the love interests of both Roosevelts—Missy LeHand and Lorena Hickok.
January 24, 2023
I've decided to read only one Elliott Roosevelt book every 6 to 8 weeks. Although I like these books for their historical content, the detecting / mystery part has a cookie cutter aspect to it. It's the same in every book. The books are easy reading. I'll keep reading them when I need my mind to relax.
August 15, 2023
This was a fun story and I liked thinking of Eleanor Roosevelt solving mysteries.
It's a bit jarring when, in the midst of the action, the author will speak of something that won't happen for years. So, the story feels more biographical than present in the action.
Still, a quick enjoyable read and the mystery was well plotted.
It's a bit jarring when, in the midst of the action, the author will speak of something that won't happen for years. So, the story feels more biographical than present in the action.
Still, a quick enjoyable read and the mystery was well plotted.
July 25, 2019
Quaint mystery with historical figure Eleanor Roosevelt as the supporting detective. Interesting historical references. Not sure I would seek out the others in the series but if I stumble upon them in thrift stores during travel I will pick them up.
August 14, 2017
I had just finished "Eleanor and Hick", and so their appearance in this book, along with so many of the other real characters from that time was truly enjoyable.
June 5, 2020
In this book, Elliott Roosevelt provides some interesting insight into his parents' relationship while leading readers through an intricate murder plot.
May 8, 2021
Extremely fun book.
June 4, 2022
A well written book, It give glances into FDR's White House. Some of the politics around the new deal.
A serial killer. And a mystery.
A serial killer. And a mystery.
October 15, 2022
Never built us a full steam ahead of story.. Too entangled with too many people. The loveliness went too fast and too pat. Too bad, wad potential.
December 15, 2020
I'm going through these great escapes like they're water. In this one, Elliott is more revealing of his impressions of Eleanor and Franklin's relationships with each other and other people. By modern standards it's really kind of refreshing, though a bit odd in the context of a mystery novel. It is also good to be reminded of the resistance FDR had from Congress on what are now regarded as his greatest contributions. When I'm done with this run, I'll go back and find the best bios of Eleanor.
March 23, 2016
Murder in Georgetown is a cozy mystery, authored by FDR and Eleanor's fourth-born (his elder brother, the first Franklin, Jr. having died in infancy) of five offspring. The story itself is not particularly complex, but what made it most interesting to this reader were the assortment of little historical details regarding everyday life--everything from undergarments, police procedure in relation to warrants and civil liberties, to securing a safety deposit box, to 1930s-era race relations in the nation's capital, to the place of capital punishment (esp. hanging) in American life, to how unaccountable in many ways public figures were in decades past and how information regarding matters great and small were readily hushed up and kept from the public eye. Those things alone made it an interesting read.
As a native Washingtonian, what appeared to have been a lost opportunity, was the role of Georgetown in the novel. I know from my own family's history that Georgetown was not the tony, uber-expensive enclave it is today in the early twentieth century. That said, what is it about the Peavys (i.e., the philandering first victim and his equally-philandering wife) that drew them to this postal code? It could (and I think should) have been a character in the book but, instead, appeared to be little more than a tag line in a series whose individual titles needed to reference different parts of the nation's capital. That seemed an unfortunate oversight.
There is a good bit of innuendo, and a fair bit of less-than-innuendo, regarding Eleanor and Franklin's sex lives and preferences, and it really didn't help to move the story along at all in my estimation. All told, it was a fun read in anticipation of a move back to the Washington, DC area but is not a series I will be continuing. In its favor, however, it has planted a seed of wanting to read more non-fiction about this remarkable couple. As a historical archaeologist and preservationist, I have always been fascinated by FDR's New Deal Programs. My maternal grandmother--a child of the Great Depression herself, married on 4/1/1929--always spoke very highly of Eleanor Roosevelt, so I'd be keen to know more about her accomplishments. I imagine enjoying the non-fiction accounts of these lives a good deal more than what feels like some thinly-veiled salacious expose. That, coupled with the fact that it is unclear how much of the work was authored by Elliott Roosevelt himself given that the "unpublished manuscripts" he left behind were likely finished by another writer (or writers) and just as heavily edited by other hands and voices, leaves me both skeptical and with a hankering for the grittier fare of my usual hard-boiled mysteries.
As a native Washingtonian, what appeared to have been a lost opportunity, was the role of Georgetown in the novel. I know from my own family's history that Georgetown was not the tony, uber-expensive enclave it is today in the early twentieth century. That said, what is it about the Peavys (i.e., the philandering first victim and his equally-philandering wife) that drew them to this postal code? It could (and I think should) have been a character in the book but, instead, appeared to be little more than a tag line in a series whose individual titles needed to reference different parts of the nation's capital. That seemed an unfortunate oversight.
There is a good bit of innuendo, and a fair bit of less-than-innuendo, regarding Eleanor and Franklin's sex lives and preferences, and it really didn't help to move the story along at all in my estimation. All told, it was a fun read in anticipation of a move back to the Washington, DC area but is not a series I will be continuing. In its favor, however, it has planted a seed of wanting to read more non-fiction about this remarkable couple. As a historical archaeologist and preservationist, I have always been fascinated by FDR's New Deal Programs. My maternal grandmother--a child of the Great Depression herself, married on 4/1/1929--always spoke very highly of Eleanor Roosevelt, so I'd be keen to know more about her accomplishments. I imagine enjoying the non-fiction accounts of these lives a good deal more than what feels like some thinly-veiled salacious expose. That, coupled with the fact that it is unclear how much of the work was authored by Elliott Roosevelt himself given that the "unpublished manuscripts" he left behind were likely finished by another writer (or writers) and just as heavily edited by other hands and voices, leaves me both skeptical and with a hankering for the grittier fare of my usual hard-boiled mysteries.
March 20, 2013
Book 18 in the series features First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as sleuth with the aide of her two cohorts DC Police Lieutenant Ed Kennelly and Secret Service Agent Szczgiel. This time the dead body is Sargent Peavy, a member of the Federal Treasury Board. The suspect is Jessica Dee, Peavy's one-time lover and now close friend also current secretary of Senator Huey Long.
Jessica got her job with Sen Long at the request of Mrs Roosevelt and she feels that no one she recommended could be a murder. Seems Mr Peavy was a philandering husband with a lot of enemies. Anybody could have killed him other than Jessica and the First Lady sets out to prove who did. This time among the interesting White House visitors are little Miss Shirley Temple, the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. An outstanding whodunit!
Jessica got her job with Sen Long at the request of Mrs Roosevelt and she feels that no one she recommended could be a murder. Seems Mr Peavy was a philandering husband with a lot of enemies. Anybody could have killed him other than Jessica and the First Lady sets out to prove who did. This time among the interesting White House visitors are little Miss Shirley Temple, the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. An outstanding whodunit!
January 14, 2017
I found this at a used book store...thinking it was one with the same title by Margaret Truman. But it was written by Elliott Roosevelt, son of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. It's one of 20 mysteries he has written. The story starts in 1935 with a fictional peek into life with the Roosevelts, especially Eleanor and her interest in helping the police discover who murdered a member of the Federal Treasury Board. It may be fiction but reading it from the advantage of the present made it especially interesting to read.
March 29, 2011
A nice cozy read. I wondered as I read it how much of the description of Eleanor and FD's relationship was true and how much was made up. The book also has other well-known names in it which makes me wonder whether their role in the book is fiction or true. The story mirrors a Miss Marple story. Great for escape into a comfortable old world where societal norms and gossip help to solve crimes rather than strictly forensics.
December 23, 2014
This was a very interesting book in the Eleanor Roosevelt series. There is a lot of information I did not know about FDR and the first lady, but I do not know if this account is accurate or purely fictional. Her involvement with prominent persons and in investigating murders is rather intriguing. I liked this book better than some others I have read in this series and will probably read more of these books.
Read
September 8, 2013When I first came to America found this series at Kaybees and now found them again when I moved to WDC again. So full of quotes and information. This one is a bit LGBT friendly. And the Mencken quote great.
December 28, 2014
An easy, fun mystery with a unique twist: the murder is being investigated by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Written by FDR and Eleanor's son Elliott, I wonder how much of their relationship as described in the novel was real.
September 8, 2008
Fun interesting history involved in a murder mystery
July 10, 2009
A; Picked up on the disco'd shelf at the library and rather enjoyed this fictional mystery with real life characters.
December 3, 2011
Another fun story with real life characters. Ponder what parts are fact and what parts are fiction...
February 25, 2012
This book at an interesting look at Joe Kennedy. Great read! What a name.....Beverly Hill.
July 4, 2012
Abominable!
July 25, 2012
I enjoy the historical aspects of Elliott Roosevelt's book and the possibility that he may be including insights from personal experience.
Want to read
August 20, 2013I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12128792
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12128792
April 12, 2017
A minor government official is found murdered and naked in his bedroom with "empty seminal vesicles" (and I wish I had a dollar for every time I read THAT phrase). An earring on the rug points the finger of suspicion at his former mistress, Jessica Dee, but Eleanor Roosevelt believes that explanation is just a little too pat. For one thing, the murdered man, a known philanderer, has recently been seen around Washington in the company of a striking redhead ...
This installment by ER read more like a Who's Who of mid-1930's America than an attempt at a murder mystery: W.C. Fields, Jean Harlow, three of the Marx Brothers, Joseph Kennedy, General Douglas MacArthur, Huey Long, J. Edgar Hoover, Father Coughlin, Shirley Temple, etc.
Don't get me wrong; this was an enjoyable, shorter than usual, read. It just seemed like it had a little less substance, a little more "fluff" than most of the books in this series.
This installment by ER read more like a Who's Who of mid-1930's America than an attempt at a murder mystery: W.C. Fields, Jean Harlow, three of the Marx Brothers, Joseph Kennedy, General Douglas MacArthur, Huey Long, J. Edgar Hoover, Father Coughlin, Shirley Temple, etc.
Don't get me wrong; this was an enjoyable, shorter than usual, read. It just seemed like it had a little less substance, a little more "fluff" than most of the books in this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews