Review: The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton

by Chriss Cornish published: May 4, 2010 No Comments

N is for Ninth Daughter, The

This Book Is About

1773: The Massachusetts colony is torn between patriots who want independence from British rule and loyalists who support the King. At the center is the educated and beautiful Abigail Adams?wife of John Adams, the leader of the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization opposing the Crown.

When a murder occurs in the home of their friend and fellow patriot, Rebecca Malvern, John is accused of the gruesome crime, which was seemingly perpetrated to obtain a secret Sons of Liberty document. With both her husband?s good name and the fate of the Sons of Liberty at stake, Abby must uncover a conspiracy that could cost them all their freedom?and their lives.

My Thoughts On This Book

I don’t usually go for books that are about real historical people, let alone cozy mysteries in that tradition (for a variety of reasons I won’t expound on here). But I had to read The Ninth Daughter after hearing the author speak at Mysterious Galaxy here in San Diego.

And I really enjoyed the book, which is suspenseful and well written. There are some subtle themes running through it and I like how the title actually plays into the book.

First of all, I should say that The Ninth Daughter is not a cozy but actually a very well built historical thriller based on a crime that didn’t happen. No presumptuous fictional recreating of ‘what really happened that fateful night’. Just a made up crime that could reasonably have happened.

Secondly, author Barbara Hamilton convinced me to try her book when she spoke about it and read from it during her appearance at our local bookstore. Hamilton had originally taken part in a series about the First Ladies, for which she did extensive research. She found she really like Abigail Adams and decided to do a historical fiction series starring her, so to speak. So Hamilton expanded her already extensive research on First Lady Abigail Adams and even read the actual letters that Mrs. and Mr. Adams sent each other.

The Ninth Daughter is set in Boston in 1773, a scant two weeks before the in/famous Tea Party. The main character is Abigail Adams, wife of the John Adams who latter became the 2nd President of the United States.

The narration is third-person limited and follows only Abigail, there are no other point of view characters.

In The Ninth Daughter Abigail isn’t a detective out solving this week’s mystery of who stabbed the vicar with a knitting needle (for one thing, there wouldn’t be any vicars). She’s just a woman who comes upon the scene of an obscene murder in her friend’s kitchen and, after searching the house, realizes her friend has either fled the killing or been kidnapped for having witnessed it. Abigail wants to find her friend, but soon discovers the murder could be the work of serial killer who’s been loose in Boston for some time.

The story itself is gritty and real. It’s clear that the author’s extensive research goes past just Abigail and John Adams to the period itself. The scenes are full of little, incidental details that build the realism. Like Abigail talking about going to “Meeting” instead of saying “Church”. Bringing pumpkins and lobsters home from the market. There were slaves in the Boston of 1773 and there are salves in The Ninth Daughter.

The book has that meticulous yet subtle historical detailing that you find in fine film dramas.