The Illusion of Murder by Carol McCleary
A mystery book review
Second in a new mystery series featuring the nineteenth-century American journalist Nellie Bly, The Illusion of Murder centers on her around-the-world trip in 1889 to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg's 80-day record.
Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran. Her father rose from mill worker to mill owner and then died when she was six, leaving his large family in financial straits. Cochran’s journalism career began with a fierce letter to the editor about a sexist newspaper column, which was so skillfully and compellingly written that the paper hired her. Under the pen name Nellie Bly, she wrote articles about the plight of working girls when not relegated to the fashion beat. Later, for the New York World, she feigned madness to expose barbaric conditions at a mental asylum, covered the Pullman Railroad strike, and set off on her round-the-world challenge - all by the age of twenty-five.
In the novel, Nellie's travel difficulties are compounded by the knifing of a mysterious man in a hooded djellabah in Port Said, Egypt. Near him in the crowd, Nellie goes to help and hears him whisper "Amelia" before he dies. Feeling a responsibility to deliver the news of his death to his wife, or whoever Amelia is, Nellie tries to track her down but is thwarted at every turn by her fellow ship passengers. In the mysterious East she encounters snake charmers and stage magicians whose trade secrets she learns, as well as Madame Xi Shi, a diminutive Chinese spiritualist with bound feet who might, Nellie speculates, be the "'white crow' ... to prove that not all crows are black."
The Illusion of Murder could have benefited from some judicious editing to give it a livelier pace. As narrator, Nellie makes frequent references to her fears, perfectly normal after surviving more than one murder attempt, but these tend to blunt the reader's own fear, dampening tension. Judging from her adventures, the real Nellie was no nervous Nellie but something of an adrenaline junkie. This novel offers a fun introduction to an amazing woman. (2011; 352 pages, including factual footnotes and an excerpt from the real Nellie Bly's book Around the World in 72 Days)