Lynn Austin A Proper Pursuit

A Proper Pursuit

Lynn Austin

Bethany House, Sep 2007, $13.99

ISBN: 9780764228919

In the summer of 1893 in Lockport, Violet Hayes is stunned to learn that her father is remarrying the Widow Maude O'Neill. It is not the rat faced phony Widow, who may have killed her first husband or her two children Horace and Harriet that stuns Violet; as she explains to her father that he has a wife, her mother even if she has been restrained in a mental hospital for the last eleven years. Her father says he is now free to remarry; Violet asks when did she die and why was she not told. Instead her father finally admits her mother apparently deserted Violet and her father and moved to Chicago. Violet, who barely remembers her mother, needs to know why along with six other mysteries as much as to escape the Widow, her father, and the courtship of Herman Beckett.

In Chicago, Violet searches for her mother Angeline Cepak Hayes while staying with her grandmother and great aunts. Her grandmother especially welcomes her to the family. As she learns about her maternal roots she meets Silas McClure, seller of Dr. Dean's Blood Builder. They are attracted to one another, but Violet has doubts as everyone she meets seems to have an agenda for her even her loving nurturing grandmother.

This is a fantastic inspirational ninetieth century Americana tale starring a precious female protagonist whose naive understanding of life beyond Lockport is based on romance and mystery dime novels. The ensemble cast in Chicago and Lockport enhance the efforts of the heroine to solve her seven mysteries; besides why mom left to include did Maude kill her first husband and why did dad give up on religion, etc. Although the romance between the bemused Silas and the bewildered Violet is unnecessary, readers will appreciate this entertaining look through the eyes of an inexperienced but not shrinking Violet at a time when Chicago hosted the Columbian World expedition.

Harriet Klausner