You'll never guess the ending.

http://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-marked-man-by-barbra-hamilton.html

Honestly, I understand why ladies are never the heroines of anything, they simply cannot get away from their kitchens long enough to rescue anyone.
--Barbara Hamilton (A Marked Man p 281) ( )

Do I believe Abigail Adams was a sleuth? No.

Is this still a fascinating mystery series? Oh, yes!

I love the historical context. It brings the Revolutionary War period to life like nothing else I've ever read- and I've read a number of novels set in that period.

Here, the plot is complex, with political overtones, though it did not seem to be politically motivated. I did find the end-game a bit implausible... but everything else was so grounded that I didn't mind.

America, in that era, was a VERY different place than we realize, and this series brings home a lot of that. The basic pragmatics of life are so foreign to our experiences!

I'm a great fan of historical cookbooks, because they give me a look into how people actually lived in earlier ages. This series is similar, plus the whole mystery element is enticing.

Highly recommended, and if you haven't read the first, you can start here. ( )

Abigail is asked for help by Lucy Fleckner. A good friend of Lucy's, Harry Knox, who prints pamphlets for the Sons of Liberty, has been arrested for the murder of Sir Joseph Cottrell, Lucy's fiancé. Lucy insists that the victim, a notorious womanizer, was not her fiancé, her heart all too clearly belonging to the accused. Abigail and her husband, John, resolve to prove Harry's innocence. The disappearance of a servant woman from the house of Lucy's Loyalist parents adds to the mystery. I enjoy Ms Hamilton's way of telling the story. She brings you to the brink of revolution, portraying such noted patriots as Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and Dr. Joseph Warren. The action builds to a very predictable but satisfying ending. ( )

Wonderful sequel to the first Abigail Adams mystery. And a real linguistic treat in terms of the festering, witch-frigging psalm-singing Tory bastards who occasionally appear in the book. I really feel like I'm getting to know Abigail personally and have a better understanding of her environment. ( )

Mystery lovers, historical fiction lovers, and admirers of anything Barbara Hambly writes, rejoice! The resourceful and indomitable Abigail Adams is at it again, tracking down the solution to yet another murderous mystery. In an uneasy partnership with British Provost Marshall, she treads the delicate line between a search for the truth and the need to protect the Sons of Liberty from increasing British persecution. This tale involves not only murder and espionage but long-simmered revenge, mistaken identities, forensic pathology, star-crossed lovers, a land grab and a secretive tenant, all while Abigail keeps up a lively household when woman's work ran dawn to dusk. ( )