Three novellas of murder and mystery in nineteenth-century Minneapolis

OWNER DIES UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES AT MINNEAPOLIS MILL!

HOTEL BELLMAN FOUND DEAD IN OSCAR WILDE’S ROOM!

$10,000 REWARD FOR DISCOVERING MY MURDERER!

These headlines are just the beginning as Larry Millett returns to the scene of the crime in three tales of intrigue and murder in historic Minneapolis. The mind that brought us the intrepid Shadwell Rafferty now introduces three unlikely but talented new detectives—in-laws Sophia Westerly and Annie Nichols, and the incomparable Oscar Wilde—who are thrown into murder investigations amid flour milling, literary culture, and labor organizing in the burgeoning city.

Murder at the Falls takes us to the Perfection Flour Mill at St. Anthony Falls when one owner turns up dead under grotesque circumstances and suspicion lands on the other, plunging the city into a frenzy of dark speculation. In A Wilde Night at the Nicollet House, Oscar Wilde, in the midst of his 1882 North American tour and spouting witticisms as only he can, teams up with the long-time house detective at the Nicollet House Hotel to search for the murderer of the hotel bell captain found dead in his room. In The Death Committee, a champion lawyer of the working class, convinced his own murder is imminent, arranges for three citizens to investigate his death, with a $10,000 reward going to the one who finds the killer.

Shining light on the colorful characters and curious corners of Twin Cities history, Mysterious Tales of Old Minneapolis brings the nineteenth-century city to vibrant life (and dastardly death) in the spellbinding style that Larry Millett’s legion of loyal readers has come to love.

Tales of murder and revenge: the early exploits of detective Shadwell Rafferty

Shadwell Rafferty’s last case may have led to his murder, but naturally—and fortunately, for followers of the indefatigable St. Paul detective—there’s more to the story. Mysterious Tales of Old St. Paul gathers three novellas from Larry Millett, casting back to Rafferty’s beginnings to recount a trio of intriguing cases that honed his skills before he joined forces with Sherlock Holmes.

In “Death in the News,” St. Paul citizens wake one morning to find that the sign on downtown’s tallest building that reads PIONEER PRESS has been altered—at considerable effort—to LIARS. An elaborate prank, yes, but it foreshadows a far worse crime, and Rafferty is on the case. In “The Birdman of Summit Avenue,” cats are turning up dead in the yards of St. Paul’s prominent citizens, and suspicion swiftly falls on the wealthy avian enthusiast Ambrose Harriman, but the case turns darker still when a neighborhood boy is found murdered in Harriman’s yard. In “The Gold King,” an enigmatic stranger arrives in town, calling himself the Gold King and announcing his plans to unearth hidden treasure, which eventually leads to a shocking conclusion.

Steeped in the mystery and history of nineteenth-century St. Paul, these interlocking detective stories feature the characters—and the local character—that have made the Shadwell Rafferty series irresistible. Spellbinding as ever, these stories also afford the curious pleasure of watching Rafferty find his footing on his way to becoming the consummate detective whose exploits have delighted readers again and again.