The Gideon Stoltz Historical Mysteries

“Strong, well-drawn characters, rich attention to natural detail, and a haunting narrative make this a series to get excited about.” — Paul Doiron, author of the Mike Bowditch Mysteries

Lay This Body Down

Lay This Body Down

“Vividly recreates pre-Civil War tensions in the service of a gripping whodunit . . . Fergus’s plotting matches his superior historical detail.” — Publishers Weekly

In 1837, human beings were considered chattel, and both Northern and Southern states grew rich from slave labor. A Pennsylvania sheriff like Gideon Stoltz could uphold the federal Fugitive Slave Act or defy that racist law at great peril. In this hard-hitting, action-packed novel, Gideon tries to help a boy who has fled north from Virginia – and pays dearly for his principles.

Written with the vivid, atmospheric prose that imbues the whole series, the life and times of an early American town and its hardscrabble citizens will grip readers as Gideon and his wife True work to solve a murder, thwart a kidnapping ring, and help one unforgettable boy who chooses freedom above all else.

“Powerful and moving . . . Lay This Body Down isn’t just a wonderfully tangled mystery, it’s a window into a time when the nation’s soul was in doubt.” — Scott Weidensaul, New York Times bestselling author of A World on the Wing

Read the first chapter
Learn more
Buy the book

Welcome!

I enjoy hearing from readers. Email Me a question or share a comment on my mysteries and the characters who populate them.

Sign Up Here (or by using the button below) for a free email newsletter about my books, how I work, and Gideon Stoltz’s life and times.

 

Nighthawk’s Wing

“A superior sequel . . . Expertly melds setting and plot” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

In the rough-and-tumble backwoods town of Adamant, the young Pennsylvania Dutch sheriff Gideon Stoltz has a new case when a woman suspected of witchcraft is found murdered. Suffering from a head injury after a fall off his horse, Gideon can’t recall anything that happened at the time of the woman’s death. As flashes of memory return, he realizes that not only did he know the victim, he was with her the night before she died.

Nighthawk’s Wing beckons readers who crave authenticity in Early American historical novels, including those intrigued by Amish and Mennonite communities, witchcraft, spells, and visions. This compelling mystery glides along the edge between the gritty reality of the early 1800s — and a parallel world of spirits and haunted souls.

“An accomplished crime novel . . . more than a down-to-earth procedural, Nighthawk’s Wing takes flight.” — Historical Novels Review

Read the first chapter
Learn more
Buy the book

 

A Stranger Here Below

“Deeply imagined and intricately plotted . . . a stirring tale” — Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and People of the Book

1835. Adamant, Colerain County, Pennsylvania. The young sheriff Gideon Stoltz faces his first real challenge when his mentor, a respected local judge, ends his own life. Gideon is regarded with suspicion: he’s new to town, and Pennsylvania Dutch in the backcountry Scotch-Irish settlement. And he found the judge’s body. Gideon’s own mother was a victim of a violent crime, and he must confront his own earlier trauma as he digs into the judge’s past. When he realizes that his friend’s suicide was spurred by much more than despair, Gideon must follow a dangerous path into Adamant’s troubled history.

“The novel’s special strength is its imaginative saturation in the community of Adamant, a violent, haunted place of dreams and visions, a place as hard and unforgiving as its name.” — Castle Freeman, Jr., author of The Devil in the Valley

Now available in paperback!

Read the first chapter
Learn more
Buy the book

Solving Crimes in Early America

The Gideon Stoltz mysteries are set during the Age of Andrew Jackson, a time when the foundations of the modern United States were being laid. It was a tumultuous era with many echoes of our current day: controversy raged over foreign immigration, prison reform, free education, religion, gun violence, a growing inequality of wealth, who should have the right to vote, states’ rights versus federal oversight, and that overarching and hugely incendiary issue, slavery.

Law enforcement was spotty and difficult. An 1830s sheriff like Gideon Stoltz had no access to telephones or computers, fingerprinting, DNA testing, or rapid travel over long distances. A sheriff patrolled his jurisdiction on horseback or by “shank’s mare” (on foot). He had to use brains and instincts — and sometimes brawn — to solve crimes and thwart criminals. Learn more about Gideon Stoltz’s America.