The Gray Chamber: one woman's fight to gain her freedom

The Gray Chamber by Grace Hitchcock is another book in her True Color series which features historical stories of American Crime. These stories are strange but true events. In this story, Edyth Foster is a young woman who is a few months from her 25^th birthday and receiving her total inheritance. She has been in the guardianship of her Uncle Boris since her parents were killed in a tragic accident many years prior. Edyth is seen as odd as she likes to ride her velocipede (an early form of a bicycle) and participate in the local fencing club with her oldest friend Raoul “Bane” Banebridge. She isn’t interested in the latest fashions or even following the rules of high society of 1887 New York. Just as Bane and Edyth’s relationship begins to blossom into more than just friendship. Edyth finds herself being examined for mental health issues. Thinking her uncle would never have her committed, she finds herself locked away in New York’s infamous Blackwell’s Island in the Woman’s Lunatic Asylum where no one believes that she has been wrongly committed or even what her real name is. There she meets another patient, Nellie Brown, who seems as sound mind as Edyth does. Will Edyth ever escape this nightmare? Will Bane find a way to set her free and help Edyth expose the truth?

The Gray Chamber is another awesome book in this series. I read The White City (2019) last year and loved Ms. Hitchcock blend of fiction with the historical events. From the opening page, the reader is introduced to a time when mental illness wasn’t understood and women were routinely falsely diagnosed as mental ill in order to get rid of them for various reasons. Some women were wives that husbands found a way to divorce them without scandal or even immigrants who couldn’t speak the language. The drama is intense and exciting. The treatment of the patients is horrifying and heartbreaking. The asylum was officially closed in 1894 after an expose was published and led to a grand jury investigation. There are characters, you know, are up to no good right off the bat and there are characters that surprise you as their motives are revealed. I look forward to reading other titles in the True Color series and I highly recommend The Gray Chamber!

The Gray Chamber

is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

The White City: historical fiction of mystery and true crime

The White City by Grace Hitchcock is the story of Winnifred Wylde, daughter of a Chicago police inspector, and an avid reader, believes she witnessed an abduction of a woman at a time when many women mysteriously disappeared during the 1893 World’s Fair. Winnifred is determined to follow the clues and find the man responsible. Her father assigns Detective Jude Thorpe as her bodyguard and together they hatch an undercover plan to catch the man they believe is behind the disappearances, a Mr. H.H. Holmes. As her focus becomes stopping the man, she believes is evil, Winnifred must also contend with her Aunt Lillian’s determination to see her married very soon. With suitors vying for her hand and her desire to catch Holmes, Winnifred must decide how far she’s willing to go. Will Winnifred find the evidence she needs to capture this man? Will Jude be able to keep her safe in this dangerous game of cat and mouse? Or will Winnifred become another victim in Holmes’ dangerous game?

More and more people are familiar with the evil H.H. Holmes in recent years and as I am familiar with his horrific crimes, I was curious how Ms. Hitchcock would portray him in a book marketed as “historical stories of American Crime.” I loved how Ms. Hitchcock blended a mix of his crimes with investigative methods of the day as well as Christian faith. I loved Winnifred as she was fun, imaginative and fearless. I enjoyed Jude as a man with a personal mission to solve another crime and protect Winnifred. I loved how the romance between the two was developed. It wasn’t forced or felt unnatural. The objections to the relationship was real for the time and the pressure for Miss Winnifred to be married before she was deemed a spinster was very real. The White City was a fast read for me as it held my attention easily. Since I am familiar with Holmes, his role in the story was no surprise and I liked that Ms. Hitchcock captured how slick he was. I highly recommend The White City.

The White City

will be available in paperback

on March 1, 2019