FedoraAMISBooks

Jack the Ripper in St. Louis, St. Louis best seller

Fedora Amis won Mayhaven's Award for Fiction for this humorous Victorian whodunit set in 1897 St. Louis. A young woman's quest to become the next great female stunt reporter leads to a mad quack doctor, a man still suspected by modern researchers to be the first modern serial killer, the infamous Jack the Ripper.

The following is from a fan review.
“Young Jemima McBustle is after one thing and one thing only: the story of a life time. But becoming a world famous news reporter is proving harder than she thought. Determined to follow in the footsteps of the intrepid Nelly Bly, Jemmy leaves the safe haven of the Bricktop Boarding House for the mean underbelly of nineteenth century St. Louis. With the help of Grandpa's old civil war hat and a handy maid named Gerta, the young society miss jumps wig first into the biggest adventure of her life.

Tucked up under her old overcoat, Jemmy roams from the posh parlors of the Compton Heights neighborhood, through the back alleys of Victorian St. Louis, and finally into the bedrooms of some of the city's most notorious ladies of the night. There the girls are stalked not only by cheating madams and worthless pimps, but by something far worse, something straight out of the mists of a nightmare--the man who researchers believe might have been that most infamous of serial killers, Jack the Ripper.

Fedora Amis weaves a classic whodunit that will have you turning the pages for more. Beautifully researched, this rollicking adventure set in Victorian St. Louis is filled with historical details, one of a kind characters, and enough plot twists to keep you on your toes. ‘You, me and Dr. T’ will haunt you to the very end, and beyond.”

Can a slip of a girl reporter foil the first modern serial killer, save the biggest show in the world, and free a wrongly-accused man?

Review of Mayhem at Buffalo Bill's Wild West

Jemima McBustle is a reporter for the St. Louis Illuminator, and she’s on her way to Sedalia, Missouri to cover Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show in the fall of 1898. Naturally, an eighteen-year-old needs a chaperone, so Jemmy is accompanied by Miss Tilly Snodderly, her maiden aunt. Aunt Tilly foils a train robber on the Missouri Pacific, and Jemmy’s photographer, Hal, misses the entire incident. Not that a train robber would stand still for photography with heavy glass plates.
In Sedalia, Jemmy, Aunt Tilly, and Hal are guests of Mrs. Obadiah Koock, a former charge of Aunt Tilly’s. While Aunt Tilly takes Dorothea’s (Mrs. Koock’s) unruly daughters in hand, Jemmy has some breathing room to try to file her story of the train robbery, and to visit the Wild West show. She finds that danger wasn’t confined to the train: Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler believe that someone has been taking aim at Annie. There’s no shortage of suspects, and Jemmy and the Butlers join forces to flush them out.
This is a lively read. Amis ably captures the strictures of life for an ambitious unmarried woman. Historical figures such as Oakley, Butler, and Cody enhance the story without overwhelming it. Even ragtime musician Scott Joplin makes an appearance, as he got his musical start in Sedalia. Amis seems to promise further adventures of Jemmy McBustle, next time in Europe. I’ll be there.

Reviewed by Ellen Keith in Historical Novels Review, February, 2016

Library Journal Review (January 2016)

“Amis draws on the historical record to bring the 1898 season of Buffalo Bill’s show to life . . . the historical details reflect the author’s excellent research. A solid read-alike for Walter Satterthwait’s Western mysteries.”

And with Skimmer

A Chronology of Jemima McBustle Mysteries and Adventures Indicates the book awaits publication 1897 - Jack the Ripper in St. Louis 2014 1898, summer - See President McKinley or Die Trying 2023 From 5-star Cengage 2016 1898, September - Mayhem at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Fall 1898 "Coal Mine Massacre," A radio play about the Virden Coal Mine strike.. 1898, Thanksgiving - Have Your Ticket Punched by Frank James 2019 1899, January - Vanderbilt in Peoria 1899, March - New York to London with Dr. Crippen 1899 Easter The Ghost of Vasco DaGama *1899 Summer Colette and Jemmy at the Bastille Day Races	Fedora Amis has again delved into Missouri’s history, with its larger-than-life characters, to craft a suspenseful Victorian whodunit. Everyone loves Buffalo Bill and the original American heroine, Annie Oakley, especially those who know this true story or have seen Irving Berlin’s 1950 classic musical. Annie Get Your Gun. We meet Jemima (Jemmy) McBustle, a mere “slip of a girl,” who tries to hold onto her job as the first female reporter for a St. Louis newspaper, the Illuminator, despite the efforts of her autocratic boss, Suetonius Hamm, to prove her incompetent. To get her out of the way, he sends her off to Sedalia, Missouri, to cover Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. In keeping with the customs for well-bred young ladies in the 1890s, she is accompanied by her eagle-eyed “Aunt” Tilly (really the old maid sister of her uncle’s wife), whom she considers the “Caligula of chaperones,” and her news photographer Hal. They stay with family friends, Dorothea and her husband, Obadiah Koock, an official of the KATY railroad. When her assigned protector Hal disappears, Jemmy escapes from under the thumb of Aunt Tilly, strikes out on her own to find him and confronts train robbers, flim-flammers and murderers. She meets such legendary figures along the way as struggling piano player Scott Joplin at the Maple Leaf Club, on the “wrong side of the tracks,” and Wild West show personalities Annie Oakley, her devoted husband Frank Butler, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his angry wife Louisa. Amis narrates with a twinkling eye, tongue-in-cheek tone and wry wit to delineate her unforgettable characters and speed her story to its exciting and unexpected climax. Jemmy McBustle, teller of tales true and untrue, has one deaf ear, which she habitually turns toward the fearsome Aunt Tilly, a paragon of propriety, who cows her world into submission with the nearest available weapon, whether her pointed umbrella, her hand-carved walking stick or merely her dagger-like stare. The author’s ample skills depict people who lived over a century ago—whether ordinary, famous or infamous—with their flaws, flukes and foibles, rendering them just as vulnerable and believable as those we see around us today. By elevating a good yarn to a grand spectacle in a great big tent, she brings that bygone era back to life in all its grandeur. —Peter H. Green, Author of Ben’s War with the U. S. Marines and the Patrick MacKenna mysteries

Fedora Amis has again delved into Missouri’s history, with its larger-than-life characters, to craft a suspenseful Victorian whodunit. Everyone loves Buffalo Bill and the original American heroine, Annie Oakley, especially those who know this true story or have seen Irving Berlin’s 1950 classic musical. Annie Get Your Gun.

We meet Jemima (Jemmy) McBustle, a mere “slip of a girl,” who tries to hold onto her job as the first female reporter for a St. Louis newspaper, the Illuminator, despite the efforts of her autocratic boss, Suetonius Hamm, to prove her incompetent. To get her out of the way, he sends her off to Sedalia, Missouri, to cover Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. In keeping with the customs for well-bred young ladies in the 1890s, she is accompanied by her eagle-eyed “Aunt” Tilly (really the old maid sister of her uncle’s wife), whom she considers the “Caligula of chaperones,” and her news photographer Hal. They stay with family friends, Dorothea and her husband, Obadiah Koock, an official of the KATY railroad.

When her assigned protector Hal disappears, Jemmy escapes from under the thumb of Aunt Tilly, strikes out on her own to find him and confronts train robbers, flim-flammers and murderers. She meets such legendary figures along the way as struggling piano player Scott Joplin at the Maple Leaf Club, on the “wrong side of the tracks,” and Wild West show personalities Annie Oakley, her devoted husband Frank Butler, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his angry wife Louisa.

Amis narrates with a twinkling eye, tongue-in-cheek tone and wry wit to delineate her unforgettable characters and speed her story to its exciting and unexpected climax. Jemmy McBustle, teller of tales true and untrue, has one deaf ear, which she habitually turns toward the fearsome Aunt Tilly, a paragon of propriety, who cows her world into submission with the nearest available weapon, whether her pointed umbrella, her hand-carved walking stick or merely her dagger-like stare. The author’s ample skills depict people who lived over a century ago—whether ordinary, famous or infamous—with their flaws, flukes and foibles, rendering them just as vulnerable and believable as those we see around us today. By elevating a good yarn to a grand spectacle in a great big tent, she brings that bygone era back to life in all its grandeur.

—Peter H. Green, Author of Ben’s War with the U. S. Marines and the Patrick MacKenna mysteries

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