{"id":27426,"date":"2026-08-23T15:08:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T19:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=27426"},"modified":"2026-09-13T09:52:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:52:40","slug":"a-murderous-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/27426","title":{"rendered":"A Murderous Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Murderous Business<\/em><\/a> (2025) Cathy Pegau (Harriman & Mancini #1)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a> Set in NYC in 1912 <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Even her father’s second in command–a man who she has know since she was a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Meade,\u201d she reminded him, moving her hands away from the coffee cup and clasping them together to stop them from shaking. \u201cWhat else is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

So she decides to hire a private investigator–someone recommend by her driver (whom she trusts). <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The famous\u2014infamous, to some in the foods industry\u2014chemist 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. <\/em><\/p>\n

There are also plenty of reminders of just what life was like for a woman of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t open an account on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

That women weren\u2019t permitted to have their own private accounts rankled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d say thank goodness were past that, but these days I’m not sure how far were going to regress.<\/p>\n

It was a good mystery and an interesting story.<\/p>\n

Characters<\/strong>: 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<\/p>\n

Cover by David Baldeosingh Rotstein<\/p>\n

Publisher: Minotaur Books<\/p>\n

Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Murderous Business (2025) Cathy Pegau (Harriman & Mancini #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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,292,24,204,33,8,43,148],"tags":[991,983,545,984],"class_list":["post-27426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-ebook","category-food","category-good","category-historical","category-mystery","category-private-eye","category-queer","tag-american-imperialism-era","tag-cathy-pegau","tag-ff","tag-harriman-mancini"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-78m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13377,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13377","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":0},"title":"A Murderous Relation","author":"Michelle","date":"August 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A Murderous Relation (2020) Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell) Set in London in 1888. Victoria and Stoker are not to get much time to recover from their last adventures, as they are almost immediately asked to call upon Lady Wellie who has some important visitors she wants Victoria and Stoker to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Murderous Relation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/A_Murderous_Relation.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22496,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22496","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":1},"title":"A Murderous Relation, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"October 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A Murderous Relation, Audio Edition (2020) Deanna Raybourn narrated by Angele Masters (Veronica Speedwell) Set in England in 1888 I apparently enjoyed this more listening than I did originally reading. his argument is as specious as Lamarck\u2019s Theory of Inheritance. It seemed wildly unfair that he had proverbial first crack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Murderous Relation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/A_Murderous_Relation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3688,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3688","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":2},"title":"Seven Kinds of Hell","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seven Kinds of Hell (2013) Dana Cameron Zoe Miller's mother has died. And before she dies, she makes Zoe promise to keep running from her father's people. Since Zoe is running from herself as much as from her father's people, it's not a promise she has trouble keeping. Unfortunately for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"seven-kinds-of-hell","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/seven-kinds-of-hell-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9538,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9538","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":3},"title":"A Grave Matter","author":"Michelle","date":"December 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A Grave Matter (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in 1831 After the death of her friend in the previous book, Kiera has fled to her brother's home (her sister and brother-in-law are in Edinburgh during her sister's pregnancy), but a New Year's Eve murder pulls her into another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/A-Grave-Matter-e1510884757381.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23211,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23211","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":4},"title":"Ex Appeal","author":"Michelle","date":"February 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Ex Appeal (2022) Cathy Yardley (Ponto Beach Reunion) This follows Gouda Friends and one of the characters is the brother of Tam from that book, but you do not need to have read the previous books for this story. Vinh is very good at what he does--even though what he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ex Appeal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Ex-Appeal.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11083,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11083","url_meta":{"origin":27426,"position":5},"title":"Unfit to Print","author":"Michelle","date":"September 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfit to Print (2018) K.J. Charles Gil is the son of a wealthy man and that man's housemaid, but unlike many, Mr Lawes claimed his son. Gil had spent his childhood here under his father\u2019s carelessly affectionate eye. The old man might have played the fool, or the knave, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Unfit-to-Print.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}