title: The Conjurer: A Martha Beale Mystery
author:  Cordelia Frances Biddle 
description: Sordid secrets of the rich and powerful drive the plot of Biddle's unconvincing Philadelphia historical, the first of a new series. One morning in 1842, Main Line financier Lemuel Beale fails to return from a routine hunting trip; his capable but coddled daughter, Martha, and Thomas Kelman, assistant to the mayor of Philadelphia, set out to track him down. At the same time, a brutal serial killer of young prostitutes is stalking the inner-city slums, and traveling mesmerist Eusapio Paladino is chilling aristocratic audiences with performances in which the dead appear to be calling out through his trances. These disparate yet interrelated story threads combine in an intricately orchestrated narrative that implicates the Brahmin class and the corruption that comes with their absolute power. Biddle wonderfully evokes the color and culture of the time, but her overstocked tale ends hastily and unbelievably. Biddle is the coauthor with her husband, Steve Zettel, of <i>Death on the Diagonal</i> and other Nero Blanc crossword puzzle mysteries. <i>(Feb.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  # Gladys, the Reaper
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Anne Beale
  
  
  This page formatted 2005 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  CHAPTER I. THE FARMER'S WIFE.
  
  
  CHAPTER II. THE FARMER.
  
  
  CHAPTER III. THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER.
  
  
  CHAPTER IV. THE MISER.
  
  
  CHAPTER V. THE FARMER'S SON.
  
  
  CHAPTER VI. THE MISER'S WIFE.
  
  
  CHAPTER VII. THE SQUIRE.
  
  
  CHAPTER VIII. THE MISER'S SON.
  
  
  CHAPTER IX. THE IRISH BEGGAR.
  
  
  CHAPTER X. THE SQUIRE'S DAUGHTER.
  
  
  CHAPTER XI. THE SAILOR.
  
  
  CHAPTER XII. THE SEMPSTRESS.
  
  
  CHAPTER XIII. THE WIDOW.
  
  
  CHAPTER XIV. THE MILLIONAIRE.
  
  
  CHAPTER XV. THE MILLIONAIRE'S WIFE.
  
  
  CHAPTER XVI. THE SERVANT.
  
  
  CHAPTER XVII. THE COLONEL.
  
  
  CHAPTER XVIII. THE NURSE.
  
  
  CHAPTER XIX. THE CURATE.
  
  
  CHAPTER XX. THE HEIRESS.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXI. THE BROTHERS.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXII. THE GOVERNESS.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXIII. THE PREACHER.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXIV. THE LOVER.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXV. THE FUGITIVE.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXVI. THE FRIEND.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXVII. THE MISSIONARY.
  
  
  CHAPTER XXVIII. THE LADY