For fans of C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series, a fabulous historical
mystery series set in early America.
Set in 1835 in the Pennsylvania town of Adamant, Fergus's first novel in
a new mystery series introduces Sheriff Gideon Stoltz, who, as a young
deputy, is thrust into his position by the death of the previous
sheriff. Gideon faces his first real challenge as death rocks the small
town again when the respected judge Hiram Biddle commits suicide. No one
is more distraught than Gideon, whom the old judge had befriended as a
mentor and hunting partner. Gideon is regarded with suspicion as an
outsider: he's new to town, and Pennsylvania Dutch in the back-country
Scotch-Irish settlement. And he found the judge's body.
Making things even tougher is the way the judge's death stirs up vivid
memories of Gideon's mother's murder, the trauma that drove him west
from his home in the settled Dutch country of eastern Pennsylvania. He
had also discovered her body.
At first Gideon simply wants to learn why Judge Biddle killed himself.
But as he finds out more about the judge's past, he realizes that his
friend's suicide was spurred by much more than the man's despair.
Gideon's quest soon becomes more complex as it takes him down a
dangerous path into the past.
A Stranger Here Below is so atmospheric, so compelling and convincing,
that readers will taste the grit of the dirt roads, cringe at the
unsanitary conditions and medical superstitions that inflame a flu
epidemic, and marvel at the immensely arduous task of carrying out an
investigation using the primitive tools of the early 1800s. Fergus
leaves us breathlessly waiting for the next Gideon Stoltz mystery.
