Excerpt from Forever More
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Mister John Anderson lived alone outside the city limits in Tarrytown, in a section called Sleepy Hollow, made famous by the Washington Irving story about the headless horseman. The land out there is lush with greenery, and I could breathe much better than in the factory smoke congestion of Manhattan Island. Many of the rich and famous had moved their lodgings out here when the banks of the Hudson become cluttered with people and businesses. Sleepy Hollow Park held the large mansion of the tobacco millionaire. It was three stories tall, and in the new Victorian architecture, it cast a wide shadow along the garden way as I rode my horse up to its steel-shuttered windows and doors. I had seen the same protective enclosures when I was visiting the Federal Prison at Elmira in upstate New York. This Mister Anderson was afraid of something, and I was going to find out what it was.
When I knocked on the metal door to his mansion, I had to wait a good fifteen minutes before two armed guards opened it. They wore the uniform of the Italian freedom fighter, Giuseppe Garibaldi, with the ostrich feathers in their helmets, the purple bloomers, and the field muskets in their hands. I suppressed a snicker as I watched them walk ahead of me down the long corridor leading to the drawing room where I met with Anderson. He had little furniture in this mansion. It was like being in an empty museum to some ungodly hero. The only art objects in the mansion besides the Garibaldi memorabilia were stuffed animals standing on tables. These were common animals like dogs, birds, fish and cats.
Mister Anderson was a short man, but his eyes were vibrant, his gray hair was cut short, and his mustache was in the distinguished style of the robber barons like the new Tammany Hall boss, and present Congressman, Fernando Wood. However, Mister Anderson’s actions did not show a gentleman who was in his right frame of executive mindfulness. He skipped up to me, speaking freely to the walls around him, where were hung pictures of his dead son, Willie and this hero of his, Garibaldi. I was afraid to really question him, dreading that my detective abilities had finally met their match against this quite eccentric gentleman.
“Hello, Mister Anderson. My name is O’Malley. Patrick O’Malley. I am living out in Mister Poe’s old cottage on Fordham Road at the behest of the Union Government and the Valentine family. I have come to discuss your knowledge of Edgar Poe and perhaps the affair of Mary Rogers and her murder most foul.”
As Mister Anderson closed the steel door, he suddenly turned around, and a wild, abandoned look stood out from beneath those gray eyebrows. “What? Have you seen them? Mary visits me now, you know. She is quite the shrew. Never lets me be. In point of fact, I believe both Poe and she were out to get me from the start.”
This was quite curious. “Out to get you? I don’t understand, sir. What could they do to affect your life and safety?”
“It was Poe who killed her! That’s the truth. He wanted money for his dying Lenore, his Annabelle Lee. He was a ghoul and an opium addict. His addled mind concocted the plot to sway the police away from his own activities. My Mary was young and available, don’t you know? Longfellow and the others wanted her, but Poe, the blackguard, wanted her for himself. He wanted to replace his dying wife, Virginia, with this new one, this new phantasm for his wild and romantic imaginings!”
“But, dear sir. How can you say this? What solid proof might you have to accuse Mister Poe of such an egregious act?”
“Why, it’s the best proof of all, don’t you see? She tells me who killed her! How can I argue with her ghost? What more proof does a sane man require?” Anderson began to laugh, and dance around the room, skipping like a schoolboy on holiday.
I realized this old gentlemen was not in his right mind, so I bade him farewell. I would look into his mental health and perhaps I could find out more legitimate facts about his relationship with Poe and Mary Rogers.
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Here are all three suspenseful mysteries in one book!
Forevermore, the first mystery, was a #2 bestseller in Amazon’s Historical Mystery category. It has received outstanding reviews from readers, and it establishes Pat O’Malley as a detective sleuth par excellence. The second mystery, Disappearance at Mount Sinai, continues the development of the characters amidst an excellent caper. The third mystery, Jane the Grabber, plunges O’Malley into the middle of the Steampunk world, and it marks a turning point in the novels to come.
Forevermore Synopsis:
“Musgrave mixes accurate history with a spell-binding plot to create an amazing who-done-it! Watch for more Pat O’Malley Mysteries.”
In post Civil War New York City, Detective Pat O’Malley is living inside Poe’s Cottage in the Bronx. O’Malley is haunted by Poe one night, and the detective finds a strange note. As a result, O’Malley decides to prove that Edgar Allan Poe did not die in Baltimore from an alcoholic binge but was, instead, murdered. O’Malley quickly becomes embroiled in a “cold case” that thrusts him into the lair of one of the most sinister and ruthless killers in 1865 New York City.
Jim Musgrave’s “Forevermore” is a quick read in four acts that will keep your mind razor sharp trying to solve the mystery of Poe’s murder. Pat O’Malley must first find out how to become intimate with females before he can discover the final clue in this puzzle of wits, murder and romance.
Disappearance at Mount Sinai Synopsis:
What if the anti-Semites, racists, and terrorists wanted the final revenge following the Civil War? How do you stop them from committing the worst atrocity?
It’s 1866 in New York City. Civil War Vet and Detective Pat O’Malley’s biggest case returns him to the deep, dark South to search for the kidnapped wealthiest inventor and entrepreneur in America. But the widening gyre of anti-Semitism and racism pulls him down into the pit of hell itself. Disguised as an Oxford England Professor, O’Malley infiltrates the anti-Semites’ group and travels with his partners, Becky Charming and his father, Robert, down to a Collierville, Tennessee mansion.
At the crux of this case are a Jewish father and his five-year-old son, Seth. They have developed a unique bond that relies on Jewish folklore and a belief that they are Mazikeen, half-angel and half-human, born from the loins of Adam’s strange female cohorts during the 130 years he was banished from the Garden. Will O’Malley find Dr. Mergenthaler before it’s too late? What does this world-wide eugenics group have planned for the mongrel races? Read Jim Musgrave’s Disappearance at Mount Sinai, the second mystery in the series of Pat O’Malley Mini-Mysteries.
Jane the Grabber Synopsis:
What was it like before women were given rights to determine their own destinies? How was abortion and birth control used in the 1860s? What happens to a society when the last sexual taboo is permitted? Find out in the third mystery in the Pat O’Malley Historical Steampunk Mystery Series, Jane the Grabber.
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Genre – Historical Steampunk Mystery
Rating – PG13
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Website http://contempinstruct.com/Forevermore/
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