Author Talk with Alyssa Maxwell – Barrington, RI

Barrington Books, in partnership with Barrington Public Library, is pleased to present an author talk with Alyssa Maxwell.

Alyssa Maxwell returns to her celebrated Gilded Newport Mystery series with MURDER AT VINLAND, featuring reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews. Elegant and lighthearted murder mysteries set in the beautiful homes of Newport, Rhode Island’s elite in the late 19th to early 20th century, the Gilded Newport Mystery series by Alyssa Maxwell has been charming historical fiction readers since the series debuted in 2014—the first novel, Murder at the Breakers, was even adapted into a Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in February 2024 as the channel’s first-ever historical mystery movie! The series stars Emma Cross Andrews, who, despite being a poorer relation to the Vanderbilt family, has shaped her own identity as a sleuth and now co-owner of the Newport Messenger

Discussion and Q&A to be held at the Salem Family Auditorium in the Barrington Public Library on Thursday, September 26 at 7:00pm. This is a ticketed event. General admission for the presentation only is free. Presentation and book signing tickets include a copy of the hardcover book which is published on 8/20, and admission to the signing line after the presentation.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews must stop a bold poisoner who is targeting the society wives of the Four Hundred in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island . . .

August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Listening to the speakers and observing the ladies in attendance, Emma is struck by the contrast of the Viking warrior–inspired elements in the house and the admirable but admittedly genteel cause of bird protection. Vinland bears the name of the Vikings’ first landfall in North America, but in this room today there is most assuredly no one to fear.

Emma’s observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly’s houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt. They promptly rule out the Second Lady as a suspect, but someone has poisoned the cakes.

Soon another box of desserts as well as letters tainted with ink containing caustic toxins show up at other grand Newport cottages. Are the ladies from the luncheon being targeted? Emma and Jesse must sort through possible motives and means because now more than the birds need protection . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alyssa Maxwell is the acclaimed author of the Gilded Newport Mysteries and the Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery series. The first Gilded Newport Mystery, Murder at the Breakers, was adapted as a Hallmark movie in 2024. Maxwell knew from a young age that she wanted to write novels; growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles of all kinds drew her to the mystery genre. She and her husband reside in Florida, where she loves to watch BBC productions, sip tea in the afternoons, and delve into the past