Styx & Stone
An Ellie Stone Mystery
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Ellie Stone is a professed modern girl in 1960s' New York City, playing by her own rules and breaking boundaries while searching for a killer among the renowned scholars in Columbia University's Italian Department. "If you were a man, you'd make a good detective." Ellie Stone is sure that Sgt. McKeever meant that as a compliment, but that identity-a girl wanting to do a man's job-has throttled her for too long. It's 1960, and Ellie doesn't want to blaze any trails for women; she just wants to be a reporter, one who doesn't need to swat hands off her behind at every turn. Adrift in her career, Ellie is back in New York City after receiving news that her estranged father, a renowned Dante scholar and distinguished professor, is near death after a savage bludgeoning in his home. The police suspect a routine burglary, but Ellie has her doubts. When a second attempt is made on her father's life, in the form of an "accident" in the hospital's ICU, Ellie's suspicions are confirmed. Then another professor turns up dead, and Ellie's investigation turns to her father's university colleagues, their ambitions, jealousies, and secret lives. Ellie embarks on a thorny journey of discovery and reconciliation, as she pursues an investigation that offers her both a chance at redemption in her father's eyes, and the risk of losing him forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Near the beginning of Ziskin's competent series starter set in 1960 New York City, reporter Ellie Stone is shaken to learn that her estranged father, a famed Dante scholar, is in critical condition after a brutal beating, with no suspect yet in sight. Moreover, a second attempt on his life, which takes place in the hospital, indicates that the culprit won't stop until Professor Stone is dead. A determined Ellie throws herself into the case, only to discover a maze of possible motivations, ranging from anti-Semitism to professional rivalry. An attack on a second academic, Ruggero Ercolano, this time fatal, underlines the urgency of Ellie's investigation. Ziskin's sense of period isn't always believable, but he makes the unjust social constraints and pervasive double standard then inflicted on women painfully clear. This solid debut mystery promises even better for future series entries.
