The Poison in All of Us (Emmie McAllister
Mysteries, #1)
Release Date: 11/17/15
130 pages
Summary from Goodreads:
Winter breaks are supposed to be exciting, but
this one is murder.
A novella of suffragists and secrets.
In December 1918, the Great War is over and everyone in the small town of Cora,
Georgia is ready to relax. Stepping off the train from school, sixteen-year-old
Emmie McAllister looks forward to a pleasant Christmas, one in which she can
fix up a motorcycle, wear trousers, and enjoy the look on her mother’s face.
Yet the holidays turn darker when Emmie and her least favorite classmate, prim
and proper Dessa, stumble across the murdered body of the town’s most prominent
suffrage activist. Emmie finds herself saddled with Dessa as both girls are
determined to help find the killer.
But the more they poke around, the harder life gets for outspoken women in
Cora. With a mysterious stalker, anonymous threats, and more, if Emmie and
Dessa don’t work together and find the culprit quickly, they could be the next
victims.
EXCERPT:
“Anyway…” I began. Now gossip-time had begun, if I fed it a little, it might continue. “What about the reason for this meeting?”
“Well…” Ethel started to speak, but Mabel, whom I hadn’t noticed sneaking up to us, broke in.
“It’s obviously the suffrage question.”
The mood turned sour as Mama and Ethel put on more serious expressions. I pulled at the back of my hair. Apparently the content of the meeting was obvious to everyone but me, but now I thought about it, every time I came home from school someone made a passing mention of it. I’d remembered hearing about the club being divided on the issue. Granny was always complaining that she couldn’t understand why educated, socially active women would oppose it. I was somewhat relieved she was out of town—Granny was worse than me when it came to not keeping her mouth shut, even if it might hurt her cause.
Mama couldn’t stand the silence. “I suppose it is.”
Speaking was a mistake. Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t ladies already have ample protections under the law? It is unseemly and unladylike to take so much and yet ask for more.”
Ethel bit her lip. “There are many laws to protect women from unscrupulous men, but the fact that they exist serves to demonstrate how little power women have. If we had equal status under the law, we wouldn’t need such protections. These are laws to keep inferiors safe and to keep us inferior.”
“But—” Mabel began.
Mama interrupted. “Let’s not use all our best arguments before the meeting has even begun.”
Mabel’s face squirmed like she was more than ready to use all her best arguments, along with all her worst ones and all the ones in the middle, meeting or no. I looked around for something to change the topic, and right in time, the front doors of the house opened with a creak and two deputies walked out carrying boxes, followed by Uncle Charlie.
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About
the Author:
Connie B. Dowell writes young adult fiction and nonfiction. She holds a
B.A. in English from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Library and
Information Science from Valdosta State University. She lives in Virginia with
her husband, where they host a history podcast, One Hundred Centuries, and both
consume far more coffee than is probably wise.
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