Cathy Pegau
Books: Mystery | Historical | Queer
Harriman & Mancini: A Murderous Business (2025)
Harriman & Mancini
A Murderous Business (2025) #1
Set in NYC in 1912
Margot Harriman has taken over her family business at B&H Foods after her father’s death, but it’s 1912 and people don’t believe a woman can truly run a company.
Even her father’s second in command–a man who she has know since she was a child.
“I spoke to Meade,” she reminded him, moving her hands away from the coffee cup and clasping them together to stop them from shaking. “What else is going on?”
That she already knew slowly dawned in his eyes. His expression changed from indignation to resignation. He broke eye contact, staring into his cup as if he could find excuses in the dregs.
So when her father’s retired secretary is found dead–and in the middle of writing a note about something the company doing that could be killing customers, Margo wants to know the truth.
So she decides to hire a private investigator–someone recommend by her driver (whom she trusts).
Rett is trying to take over the family business, but her father is still alive–even if his memory is going. So she decides to take on Margot’s case on her own.
If you’ve never heard of the Poison Squad and the horrors of commercial food production and sales before the Pure Food and Drug Act, things were much worse than they come across in this book. You were just as likely to be poisoned by your food as nourished; if things weren’t watered down, then ‘fillers’ were used increase company profits, and if you were very lucky, those fillers weren’t poisonous.
The famous—infamous, to some in the foods industry—chemist and his research that led to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act were all over the newspapers across the country. The studies had caused quite the ruckus, pointing out terrible practices that eventually required food producers to take better steps toward consumer health and well-being.
There are also plenty of reminders of just what life was like for a woman of the time.
“You can’t open an account on your own.”
That women weren’t permitted to have their own private accounts rankled.
I’d say thank goodness were past that, but these days I’m not sure how far were going to regress.
It was a good mystery and an interesting story.
Characters: Margot Baxter Harriman, Loretta ‘Rett’ Mancini, Rosa Mancini, Albert Mancini, John Bascom, Hiram Potter, Julia Blumfeld, Marcus James, Giana Gilroy, Cecelia, Daniel Boone Wallace, Shiloh Wallace, Ken Thorpe, Lana, Charlie Meade, Sid Hoffmann, Lieutenant Presley, Calvin Jacobs, Mrs. Letitia Martin Jacobs, Sergeant Raymond Bittles, Franklin Barby
Cover by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Rating: 8/10