Scheduled for release May 1, 2026.
The Cobblestone Conundrums, Book III
New York, 1892.
The Bowery never lacks for spectacle: gaslit gambling dens, crowded dance pavilions, and saloons roaring late into the night. The Variety Theater draws packed houses—and the outrage of reformers who condemn them all as citadels of vice.
Nonetheless, Miss Daisy Dobbins is determined to let nothing interfere with her dream of becoming a vaudeville star.
At the center of the storm stands a charismatic preacher determined to cleanse the city of corruption. His sermons draw devoted followers and bitter enemies.
When a young woman is struck down outside a garment factory, the violence seems at first an isolated tragedy.
But it is not.
As the bodies mount, private inquiry agent Delia Ross is drawn into a web of ambition, hypocrisy, and violence stretching from factory floors to vaudeville halls to the heights of city politics.
She is about to discover a dangerous truth.
On the Bowery, virtue can be as deadly as vice.
Published September, 2024
The Cobblestone Conundrums, Book II
Assemble in a large container:
A trailblazing female inquiry agent.
A disapproving police detective.
A stubborn suffragist.
A wily state assemblyman.
An ambitious vaudeville dancer.
An unscrupulous newspaper reporter.
An unhappy society wife.
The mysterious owner of a gambling house.
A determined villain, bent on revenge.
Season with assorted minor characters, each with an agenda.
Agitate thoroughly.
Result: murder and mayhem in New York City, 1891
Vintage Ink Press
Published July, 2022
The Cobblestone Conundrums, Book I
An actress in her time plays many parts. This may be Delia’s last.
New York, 1890. Is no one what they seem?
Delia Ross has freed herself from society’s expectations. Luke Kelly has not. The emancipated actress and the disapproving police detective set out for Saratoga Springs in pursuit of a fugitive jewel thief. Along the way they will encounter collusions and contrivances, diabolical double-dealings, a talented table-turner and a murderer and, maybe, a very irritated ghost.
EXCERPT:
From an inner office came a low hum of conversation. The door was ajar. Through it Delia saw, seated at a long scarred walnut table, a wiry clean-shaven man with unruly auburn hair. On the far side of the table, in front of the window, stood an imposing barrel-chested figure with heavy jowls and bushy brows and a receding hairline. “Tell me I didn’t hear you say you mean to employ a female,” protested an unfamiliar voice.
“A person might think you don’t like females, Kelly,” the auburn-haired man observed.
“I don’t like this new breed of mushy-headed suffragists who think they should leave off their corsets and work side by side with men,” the unseen speaker growled.
If ever she had heard an entrance cue—
Delia walked into the room.
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Maggie MacKeever, Novelist 