The Actress — Cordelia Frances Biddle

A nineteenth-century Philadelphia heiress must rescue a friend from a criminal underworld in a series that “wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time” (Publishers Weekly).
 
Becky Grey Taitt is not the sort of woman who would typically infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters, but she is desperate for a powerful judge's help in preventing her abusive husband from taking custody of her child -- and that'ss the price the judge set in exchange for his aid.
 
But the plan goes awry, and now Becky is trapped among criminals and killers. Her only hope is her friend Martha Beale, who, along with her beau, Thomas Kelman, will do everything possible to rescue Becky, in this tale of political machinations, revenge, and murder.
 
“Fresh and believable. Biddle knows her manner and her city, and shows both to great advantage.” -- The Plain Dealer
 
“An intricately orchestrated narrative that implicates the Brahmin class and the corruption that comes with their absolute power.” -- Publishers Weekly
 
Praise for the Martha Beale Mysteries
 
“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.” -- Booklist
 
“A first-rate mystery.” -- Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times�"bestselling author of Hid from Our Eyes
 
“A good read . . . skillfully evokes the elegant society salons and grubby streets of 1842 Philadelphia.” -- Philadelphia Magazine