The Mysteries of Marquette: A Novel
By Tyler Tichelaar
BLACKMAIL!
……… THEFT!
…………. CORRUPTION!
…………………. MURDER!
When the Marquis de Marquette chooses to spend the summer of 1908 in Marquette, Michigan, a city named for his illustrious Jesuit relative, the residents are all astir with excitement. People begin vying to rub shoulders with the marquis, but he remains very private until he hosts a masquerade ball at the Hotel Superior. Only the finest families are invited, and even they feel slighted when he has eyes for only one dance partner.
Soon, inexplicable events begin to occur, events that threaten to expose the secrets of some of Marquette’s finest families. People begin to play a dangerous game to expose others’ crimes while maintaining their own façade of respectability.
When all is over, who will have survived the marquis’ revenge? Will it be:
Carolina Smith, the lonely, snobbish widow of a judge?
Peter White, city father, businessman, and philanthropist?
Alice Melmotte, a young woman not above blackmail?
Lysander Blackmore, the handsome ne’er-do-well thwarted in love?
Eliza Sidney, the cross-dressing orphan and heiress?
Father Rodin, the priest who knows everyone’s secrets?
From convent to brothel, from masquerade to carnival, and from upper-class homes to prison cells, this sweeping epic of crime, passion, family secrets, and redemption introduces new characters to Tyler R. Tichelaar’s already large cast of Marquette characters. It is the darkest and richest treat yet from his prolific and phantasmagorical pen.