A Special Presentation Hosted by Bards Alley Bookshop and Featuring Award-Winning Author Robert Brighton

Just about everything you think you know about Gilded Age women is wrong, says author Robert Brighton, whose work was initially inspired by 1903's 'crime of the century', the unsolved murder of businessman Edwin Burdick.

Burdick, caught up in a nasty divorce, was brutally murdered on the evening of February 26, 1903, by 'a person or persons unknown'.  No one was ever charged or convicted in the crime, which became a national and international sensation.

After four years of research into period documents, photographs, diaries, and long-hidden reports, Brighton has a solution to the case ... and not just the 'whodunit', but also the 'whydunit':  the motive that powerful people worked so hard to sweep under the rug.

Join Brighton live for a fascinating glimpse into the real world of this turn-of-the-last-century cold case ... and the women who were its key players.  These women – wives, lovers, suspects, and witnesses – universally outwitted and outmaneuvered the men who pulled the strings of the justice system.

And in doing so, they became among the Gilded Age's first true "New Women," -- the take-charge, take-no-prisoners lady who insisted on living and loving as she wished ... regardless of what men might have to say about it.

Brighton, an engaging and witty speaker, will have you laughing and learning at the same time – and you'll leave with a fuller understanding of – and greater respect for – our Victorian great-grandmothers.

There will be an opportunity at the end of the presentation to obtain a inscribed Limited Collector's edition of A Murder in Ashwood, Brighton's second installment in his Avenging Angel Detective Agency™ Mysteries, which has already been awarded BookLife's coveted 'Editor's Pick'.

His first entry, The Unsealing, won numerous awards and accolades, including first runner up for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize.  Adults.