ELDER LEGACIES, book one of a planned series, is an 85K word adult mystery

set in 1918 America. This whodunit will resonate with readers of Susan Wittig

Albert's China Bayles herbal mysteries, especially QUEEN ANNE'S LACE, and MRS.

JEFFRIES VICTORIAN MYSTERY series by Emily Brightwell.

Originally from Scotland, Thomasina 'Tommie' Dubois at 24 finds herself a WWI

widow. With the assistance of her16-year-old African American apprentice, Nell Fisher, Tommie

owns and runs a tearoom and apothecary in her inherited Victorian home. The bedroom

community of New Babylon, situated near the nation's capital, appears to be a sleepy village but

it holds dark secrets harking back to the days of slavery, as Tommie discovers when her boarder, Clarence Patterson, is

found dead in his room. Has the deadly influenza raging across the globe struck, as the doctor

hastily declares? This appears likely--- until Nell is abducted. A reluctant and inexperienced sleuth,

Tommie rises to the challenge.

Initially Tommie's greatest wish is to be mistress of a traditional home filled with family and

homemaking modeled after MRS. BEETON'S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, a

Victorian Martha Stewart. Tommie clings to the book's promises of orderly habits resulting in

guaranteed happiness despite all evidence to the contrary. Ever optimistic and sometimes

comically naïve, Tommie tries to make her way in a man's world and finds she may have more

in common with the rabble-rousing suffragists than with Mrs. Beeton.