Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 150

Guest: Annette Dashofy

Edith, writing from our guest Annette Dashofy’s home state of Pennsylvania. Annette and I are both at the Pennwriters conference this weekend, but she has a new mystery out in her fabulous Agatha-nominated Zoe Chamber series, and she’ll send one commenter a signed copy of Fair Game! Here’s a little about the book:

Paramedic Zoe
Chambers hoped a week at the Monongahela County Fair, showing her horse and
manning the ambulance, would provide a much-needed diversion from recent events
that continue to haunt her. An old friend, a bossy nemesis, and a teenage crush
from her 4-H days fail to offer the distraction she had in mind. But ever the
caregiver, she soon bonds with a troubled teen and a grieving father.

Back in Vance
Township, a missing woman turns up dead, leading Police Chief Pete Adams into a
journey through her mysterious final hours. With each new clue, the tragic
circumstances of her death grow increasingly muddied.

A cryptic phone call
leads Pete to join Zoe for an evening at the fairgrounds where the annual
school bus demolition derby concludes with a gruesome discovery and a new case
that may or may not be connected to the first. Pete’s quest for the motive
behind two homicides—and Zoe’s stubborn determination to reunite a family—thrust
them both onto a collision course with a violent and desperate felon.

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Eating Out at the Fair

Although my Zoe
Chambers Mystery Series doesn’t include recipes—Zoe isn’t much of a cook and
only has two go-to dishes she relies on—there’s usually some dining out going
on. Whether Zoe and Pete are having dinner at the fictional Parson’s Roadhouse,
footlongs at the equally fictional Dog Den, or lunch at the less fictional
Walden’s Café, considerable drama takes place over a meal.

In Fair Game, Zoe spends a week at the
county fair and chows down on a lot of fair food. Last summer, I bought a
week-long pass so I could do some research.

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Our fair, and the
one in the book, has a covered dining area separating two rows of food vendors.
Additionally, there are the trailers parked along the midway. The aromas
wafting from these concessions is enough to turn this health-conscious
vegetarian back to the dark side. Sausage grilling with onions and peppers?
They should make perfume with that fragrance. French fries. Pizza. Gyros.
Tacos. Oh my.

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My personal
favorite stop is the 4-H Dairy Bar for a chocolate milkshake. (Disregard that
previous comment about being health conscious.) I worked the booth as a kid. We
were all expected to put in a shift. Younger members and those of us with
skinny arms took the orders. Older, stronger kids—and often parents—tackled the
chore of digging out the hard-packed ice cream and running the
industrial-strength blenders. The milkshake I had last year tasted just as good
as the ones I remember.  

Recently, as I
planned some of my book launch events, the subject of what should be served
came up. Chef Rick at the real
Walden’s Restaurant in my little hometown of Burgettstown likes to create
Zoe-specific dishes for the Dinner with the Author evenings we hold there. For
the Fair Game dinner, I suggested
dishes inspired by the county fair, which led to some back and forth
discussion. Fried this. Deep-fried that. Let’s face it. Fair food is not
exactly healthy.

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I’ve also been
pondering my menu for the launch party at Mystery Lovers Bookshop. I usually
provide variations on cheese and crackers and cookies. And wine. For No Way Home, set in New Mexico, I
switched the release party menu to tortilla chips, salsa, and queso. What could
I serve for Fair Game? Corn dogs? Not
good served cold. Funnel cake? A crowd favorite, but a deep fryer and powdered
sugar in bookstore? I don’t think so. Cotton candy? Sugary fingers don’t mix
with books either.

I guess cheese,
crackers, and cookies will have to suffice.

Wickeds and readers: do you have a favorite food when you go to the fair? I’ll send a signed copy of Fair Game to one commenter!

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Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. A lifelong resident of Washington County (PA), Annette has garnered four Agatha Award nominations including Best Contemporary Novel of 2018 for CRY WOLF. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers, the Pittsburgh Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and is on the board of directors of Pennwriters. Fair Game is the eighth in her series.

There’s No Such Thing as “Just a Reader”

by Julie, hoping to turn the heat back off in Somerville. What happened to spring?

In the past month I’ve attended several different reader focused events. The Kensington Cozy Club Convention at the Cambridge Library warmed me up. Then Sherry, Barb and I went to Milwaukee for the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Weekend. The next weekend we all went to Bethesda, MD for Malice Domestic. All three of these events were great opportunities to see writer friends, and to meet readers.

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Something happened consistently, so I wanted to talk about it here on the blog. More than once during a conversation the topic would move to what brought a person to an event. I’d ask if they were a writer, and the reply would come back, “oh no, I’m just a reader.”

Dear friends, there is no such thing as “just” a reader.

Without readers, writers could write, but for whom?

Your support makes everything possible. Support comes in all forms–pre-ordering a book, requesting it from a library, posting a review, recommending it to a friend, coming to a reading or event. Commenting on a blog. “Talking” to us on social media.

Some of you take this to the next level. You write a blog that reviews books. You volunteer to help organize conferences and events. You join street teams to support authors.

But the most important thing you do is read. You read a lot.

My friend Jason Allen-Forrest is the first reader of every one of my manuscripts. When I started out, I asked him to read and let me know if I had a book. Now he is my trusted beta-reader. He gives me feedback, asks questions, and responds to the concerns I have about the book. Then when the book is published, he reads it again and helps me celebrate. I’m deep in the edits of my Garden Squad #3, and he is waiting to read it. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to that particular reader. He helps me write better books.

He is also a voracious reader. He’s who I write for, who we all write for.

I’m grateful to all of you for being readers. Thank you for giving my work your time. I realize time is a precious commodity, and I don’t take your investment likely.

And get rid of the “just”. Next time we meet, tell me you’re a reader, so I can thank you.

Wicked Wednesday: One Failure

Edith here, exulting in spring flowers.

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Wickeds, we’re continuing the theme of success. But we – and our characters – don’t always succeed. Let’s look at the flip side of the question from two weeks ago. Pick one protagonist in one book. Share something she tried to do but failed at, and how she dealt with the failure. Go!

Julie: Failure is part of the game for our characters, don’t you think? If they did everything perfectly our books would be boring. Biggest failure, without giving away a plot point? In With A Kiss I Die, Sully makes several assumptions that bring her down the wrong path. The assumptions are a failure of imagination.

Barb: Jane Darrowfield from Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, has great and good friends and a successful career behind her. But she is estranged from her son, and this enormous failure at the one thing she cared most about succeeding at, represents a huge, permanent wound to her soul.

Edith: In Charity’s Burden, Rose Carroll fails to figure out the killer before a second victim is murdered. The police failed, too, of course. The fact that she successfully apprehends the villain ameliorates her sorrow about the second death a bit.

Jessie: In my Beryl and Edwina series Beryl has led a life of adventure but has failed to find that one thing that holds her interest for long. She is well known but almost no one knows her well. By admitting to herself that she needs to slow down the hectic pace of her life she finds just what she has always been looking for by helping to solve a mystery and by spending time with Edwina.

Sherry: I’m really excited about Let’s Fake a Deal which comes out on July 30, 2019. Like Julie, I don’t want to give away any plot points, but Sarah has something to contend with that she hasn’t had to in the past. It has her doing a lot of thinking.

Readers: How do you deal failure, small or large?

Guest: Mollie Cox Bryan

Edith, writing from north of Boston, wondering how mid-May got so cold and damp. But to brighten the day, join me in welcoming author Mollie Cox Bryan, with a new series, a new protagonist, and bunches of new research! Here’s the blurb for The Jean Harlow Bombshell:

Justine Turner is a world-famous biographer of Hollywood stars. She’s also Charlotte Donovan’s overbearing boss and requests an emergency meeting about Charlotte’s latest in-progress biography. When Justine dies before their urgent discussion can begin, all Charlotte wants to do is finish the Jean Harlow biography that Justine had started. Instead, she finds herself in grave danger—stalked both online and in person by a drop-dead Jean Harlow look-alike. Together with police sergeant Den Brophy, Charlotte uncovers shocking revelations. But will these revelations be enough to catch the killer?

A Peek into my Research Process–Plus a Giveaway!

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When people ask me what’s the most fun about writing books, it’s hard for me to choose. Playing with words? Giving my imagination free rein? Or learning something new every day? I love it when it all blends together. A good example is with my new book, The Jean Harlow Bombshell.

While it’s set in New York
City, with several real places, like Central Park and Bryant Park, I created
several of the establishments. Readers have been asking about them, so I
thought to give a glimpse into how I created the top three places readers have
been asking about.

The Apartment

My character’s boss,
Justine, is wealthy and lived in an elegant old apartment. I’ve always been
fascinated by the old grand apartments in the city and wanted to tour them for
research purposes. But it turns out, that’s a bit tricky. I figured a realtor
would give me tour, but you have to prequalify to even be let in–and most of
us couldn’t begin to qualify for those multimillion dollar apartments. In fact,
the realtor laughed at me.

So much for gonzo fiction
writing. What to do?

I turned to the computer, investigated online, and gleaned information from real estate ads, blog posts, and even YouTube. Here’s a fun blog post on Judy Garland’s apartment, which was in one of those famous apartment buildings–the Dakota.

You can see from this post on another famous apartment building, the San Remo, a bit about the history and at the bottom of the post, there are a few listings of apartments for sale in the building. Did your eyes pop out of your head?  Pause for a moment here and gather yourself.

Since they wouldn’t let me
in to any of these places, and I had no connections to people living there
(fancy that), I created one and called it the L’Ombrage, which means “the
shadow” in French.  I stole elements from real apartments and made them a
part my fictional one. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Club Circe

Justine belongs to a private social club in the city–Club Circe. If you know anything about most of the social clubs in the city, they have mostly white, wealthy male members. Now there are women’s only clubs, but they are relatively new compared to the others. Many of the male-centered clubs started letting women in the 1980s. (How nice of them, right?)

Once again, I took elements from clubs like the Yale Club, and named it for a fierce goddess, and made it women-only. Its members are wealthy successful women with agency: think judges and senators.  What fun, right? Here’s a post on the women’s social clubs in the city.  

One room in Club Circe dons
red velvet walls. The floor in the entryway is a marble mosaic of the goddess Circe.
Do you see what I mean? Imagination gone wild!

Layla’s Tea Room

The tea room is one of the
oldest in the city and is a place of fading glamour. It’s in the opening scene
of the book and in a few more scenes throughout. This one came straight out of
my imagination. I researched tea houses in the city and found several varieties.
But this one is more of the Eastern feel than a quaint British tea house. I had
so much fun creating this that I created a Pinterest
board for it.  

I enjoyed getting to know more about New York City, Jean Harlow, and old Hollywood. There’s nothing like the glamour of Golden Age Hollywood. Of course, Jean is my favorite.

Readers: Who’s your favorite Golden Age actress? I’ll randomly choose a response and send you a copy of the book.

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Mollie Cox Bryan is the author of the Cora Crafts Mysteries and
the Cumberland Creek Mysteries. Her books have been selected as finalists for
an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. She has also been short-listed for the
Virginia Library People’s Choice Award. Mollie is distantly related to Jean
Harlow.

Follow Mollie on instagram @molliebryan, Facebook, Twitter at @molliecoxbryan.com, and her web site. Sign up for Mollie’s newsletter: http://madmimi.com/signups/02257714334d4ea2bf723c7a0ebf41b4/join

Cute Baby Sells Jane Darrowfield

by Barb, who hopes that when you read this she is in Milos, Greece on the first cruise of her life

Those of you with long memories may remember my Facebook campaign, Cute Babies Sell Clammed Up. I wrote all about it in a post here. Back in 2013 my first granddaughter, Viola Jane, was new and my brother and cousin had new grandchildren, too. We all posed with our progeny, and the crowd went wild!

[image error]Viola and me hawking Clammed Up.

So as you may have heard, I have a new series, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, and a new granddaughter, Etta Ann. So I thought to myself…

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I have no idea what it means that every time I get a new series, I get a new grandchild–either for the prospect of more series or for the prospect of more grandchildren. But I am certainly willing to go with it!

[image error]The cousins together in early May

Readers: One lucky commenter will win an Advanced Reader Copy of Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. However, the winner won’t be notified or the book shipped until I get back at the end of the month!

Guest Lucy Burdette

Edith here, still coming down from Malice, but delighted to welcome a good friend of the Wickeds, Lucy Burdette – who has a brand-new Key West Food Critic mystery out! Here’s the cover description of A Deadly Feast:

Before Key Zest food critic Hayley Snow’s family descends on the island for Thanksgiving and her wedding to heartthrob Detective Nathan Bransford, she has one last assignment–a review of a seafood tasting tour conducted by her friend Analise Smith. But when one of the tourists collapses on the last stop, Analise begs her to investigate before the police destroy her business and shut down the local Key West eateries on her tour. Pressure mounts when Analise calls a second time to request that Hayley meet with Chef Martha Hubbard, who prepared key lime pies for the tasting tour and is terrified that someone poisoned her pies to ruin her reputation. Chefs all around town are preparing their versions of a Thanksgiving feast, but with a murderer on the loose, will Hayley and her friends have anything left to be thankful for? 

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In Search of a Believable Amateur Sleuth

First things first—a big thank you to the Wickeds for allowing me to be a guest on your fabulous blog! Love you guys to death…well not quite…

On my mind today is believable amateur sleuths—what is the
secret? It’s such an important question for a traditional or cozy mystery
series. I figured this group of talented writers and discerning readers would
have no trouble weighing in…

For me, the hardest part of writing an amateur sleuth is courting
suspension of disbelief. My readers must be persuaded to suspend disbelief in
every way—characters, plot, setting, everything! Savvy readers won’t tolerate ridiculous
behavior of the nonprofessional sleuth for very long. My character, Hayley
Snow, is a food critic in Key West. Since her profession does not explain her
involvement in crime-solving, her intense interest in mysteries must happen
because of her relationships with other characters and her own personality and
history.

In the first food critic mystery, AN APPETITE FOR MURDER, Hayley Snow becomes involved in solving a murder because she is a Person of Interest. She actually has a very good motive for murdering this woman, so she also has a big stake in finding the real killer.

With each successive installment, I have tried to think about who Hayley cares about and what secrets they have that might lead to murder, and why they might turn to her for help. I have tried to build this urgency to resolve the mystery into her history and psychology and her present moment. What is happening in her life at this moment that draws her in? What is her *stake* in the mystery? What does she want more than anything else in the world? How will the crime affect her in this book—and affect people whom she loves? How has she grown and changed over the series? How will her relationships fluctuate and mature? I try to focus the book so that mystery challenges my sleuth to give the best of what she’s got—and to write this so it sounds plausible. It’s not easy!

In A DEADLY FEAST, food critic book #9, which came out this
week from Crooked Lane Books, Hayley Snow is supposed to get married to her
heartthrob, police detective Nathan Bransford. They first met when she was a suspect
in murder by Key lime pie. Now they’re engaged. Having Nathan in her life adds
another wrinkle because he’d prefer she stay out of everything crime-related. I
thought you might enjoy this little snippet of conversation between Nathan and
Hayley while they’re waiting for their marriage counseling session. I hope it
shows some of the conflict between them!

After the waitress
delivered our drinks, his in solid white china and mine in a tall clear plastic
cup, I asked him what he’d heard about the incident in the brewery. “It’s not
just morbid curiosity,” I assured him, though he looked dubious. “You know I
was right there when the woman took ill.”

“Yes, and I find that
astonishing.” His eyebrows peaked in mock dismay. “Not.”

I’d developed
something of a reputation for showing up at murder scenes. And while there, I
seemed to notice things more than other people did, and make connections that
they might have missed. Friends knew I’d sorted out a few mysteries. And I was
pegged as more approachable and less intimidating than the cops. Nathan wasn’t
thrilled about any of this.

Readers: Which traits and behaviors in traditional/cozy mysteries cause you to stop reading? What can you overlook?

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Links for Lucy:

Crooked
Lane Books: http://www.crookedlanebooks.com/lucyburdette

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/lucyburdette

Instagram:
www.instagram.com/lucyburdette

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/lucyburdette  
@lucyburdette

Website:
https://lucyburdette.com

Jungle
Red Writers:  www.jungleredwriters.com

Mystery
Lovers Kitchen:  www.mysteryloverskitchen.com

Bookbub  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lucy-burdette

Can We Just Stop?

By Sherry — I’m looking forward to some time at home

[image error]I’m just back from a busy season of traveling to conferences. Last weekend was Malice Domestic which celebrates traditional mysteries – the kind of mysteries I write. Recently, I’ve notice a growing trend in the normally supportive crime writing community that makes me mad enough or maybe sad enough to write this post. It’s a trend of mocking people who write traditional and cozy mysteries.

It happens in many different forms. Sometimes it’s the sneering comment on a panel where someone says “Oh, I don’t write cozies” like writing cozies is beneath them or “I write real books.” Sometimes it’s a post on Facebook mocking titles with puns and then people pile on in the comments. It’s the overheard comment in the hall after a panel that goes something like, “now we can go swear.” Cue the superior laughter. I’ve heard people calling cozies “cutsies” and people dismissing the entire genre because of the covers.

[image error]Cozies run the gamut from very fluffy where the author creates a idyllic town where only a bad person dies to the more traditional side where no one deserves to die but someone does. Cozies often include some humor and who doesn’t need a laugh? I try to write books that fit the parameters of the cozy genre but also have emotional depth with complex male and female characters who are trying to live their lives when a murder interrupts it. And frankly, I think my Sarah Winston (like most cozy writers’ protagonists) is as real or more real than many of the people we see in thrillers. (Let me just say that I LOVE thrillers and read lots of them.) But I don’t mock writers who have protagonists who can beat up five men blindfolded, after they’ve been stabbed, shot at, run over, and tortured.

[image error]Yes, my books have cute covers with cats and titles that are most often puns. Does that mean the story isn’t good or worth reading? And just because you might not like cozies does that mean you have to denigrate the genre publicly? People have different tastes in reading and there’s nothing wrong with that. As Julie Hennrikus always says that’s why there’s different color refrigerators. Just because you like your orange refrigerator, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with my pink one. (Okay, I don’t have a pink refrigerator, mine is boring, but you get my point.)

Let me add that there are many crime fiction writers who don’t participate in this kind of nonsense. I have to give a shout out to E. A. Aymar, a talented thriller writer, who in a recent blog and on panels has said how hard he thinks it would be to write a cozy.

So to all of you who mock the cozy mystery genre, I invite you to write one, find an agent to represent you, get it published by a major publisher, get nominated for a major award, earn out your royalties, get positive reviews, get your contract renewed multiple times, have your editor ask you to write a second series, and hit a bestseller list. Maybe then you’ll understand that all writing is hard and give cozy writers a little respect.

Many thanks to Malice Domestic for providing a conference where authors and readers can come together for a weekend of celebrating mysteries. This year felt magical and was a balm to my soul.

Readers: What do you like about reading cozies?

Wicked Wednesday: Malice Domestic Highlights

By Edith, still coming down from the whirlwind that is Malice Domestic.

Wickeds, it’s always a success to to go to Malice and meet our fans and our wonderful fellow authors. Share your highlights of the conference with our reading community! (And how is it we didn’t get one picture of all of us together?!)

Liz: Having missed last year’s Malice, it was even better to be there with everyone this year! So great to see everyone, as usual, and I had a lot of fun on the pet panel. Our moderator gave us really thoughtful, interesting questions that gave us a chance to talk about social issues involving animals, which made for an interesting discussion. And of course so happy for all the amazing Agatha award winners!

[image error]Liz and Edith/Maddie just before the fans swarmed us for free Kensington books!

Barb: Malice is like the high school reunion you actually want to attend. It was so great to see everyone. I spent way too much time in my room working on copy-edits, but highlights for me were the Kensington book giveaway, the Sisters in Crime Breakfast, and the Sisters in Crime Chapter Presidents’ meeting. So many dedicated people working so hard! Thanks to our fearless leader Sherry Harris for keeping it all together.

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Sherry: Thank you, Barb! The breakfast was wonderful and the board is doing so much work. It is inspiring. For me Malice is all about the talking — raise your hand if you are hoarse this morning! It started the minute I walked in the lobby and saw blogger Dru Ann Love. It went on all weekend until the very last minute before going home when we dropped Agatha award winner (woo-hoo!) Ellen Byron off at her relatives’ house (they live near me). The only downside to Malice is it’s never long enough to have a conversation with everyone I want to. Julie and I also had a great time hosting a table at the Malice banquet!

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Julie: What a great time! I did my first Malice Go Round, with Debra Goldstein as my partner. We had two minutes each to pitch our books, and did it 20 times. A great way to meet 160 people! The Kensington book event was another great way to meet a lot of folks. I was also delighted to see so many folks in 3D that I knew online. Lee, the Nicoles, different bloggers. This really was a wonderful Malice. Such a great community.

[image error]Debra Goldstein and Julie at Author Speed Dating.

Edith: So many highlights! It’s always a thrill to be introduced as an Agatha nominee, and I was in brilliant company with my fellow historical mystery authors.

[image error]From left, Victoria Thompson, Edith, LA Chandlar, and Sujata Massey with our nominee certificates (Rhys Bowen didn’t attend the conference).

I didn’t win again, alas, but Sujata’s book, Widows of Malabar Hill, is stunning and you should read it. She definitely deserved a teapot. I also loved hanging out with some of my Killer Characters blogmates and a few of Ramona DeFelice Long’s seven AM sprint buddies, getting big hugs from Dru and Kristopher Zgorski (of the Bolo Books blog), signing my story “Sushi Lessons” in the Mystery Most Edible anthology, meeting the Ellery Queen Magazine editor, hosting a banquet table, and so much more.

[image error]New Englanders include Ang and Annette Pompano at left and Barb. My turquoise-haired friend Risa Rispoli is also my midwifery consultant.

Jessie: As always, my favorite part of Malice is catching up with all the far-flung friends I only see at conferences. The programming is always a lot of fun but the spontaneous moments in the hallways and elevators are always the best part for me. It never feels long enough and always leaves me wanting more!

Readers: What are your favorite gatherings, large or small?

Opening Lines

Write an opening line for this photograph (used with permission from New England Sister in Crime Sharon Daynard).

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Edith: Well, damn! So that’s where I dropped the gun last fall after NRA-Billy met his unfortunate (but necessary) demise. Too bad I ran across it on my first date with pacifist Joey…

Julie: The final snow melt of the season always brought unexpected surprises. This, however, was a little unusual. Though it did help explain Margaret’s boyfriend’s disappearance.

Sherry: Planting the guns around this joke of a town was easy. The frenzied aftermath provided the distraction I needed to carry out my plan.

Jessie: While all the others on the playground worried about the rising local crime rates, Sarah wondered how much the antique gun would go for at auction.

Barb: Jacob stopped and leaned against his rake. His pulse raced and a feeling of euphoria rose in his chest. The tale he’d told himself since childhood must have been true. He wasn’t crazy after all.

Liz: Of all the things to fall out of my oversized purse when I was looking for a tissue, it had to be the murder weapon. And in front of the town’s nosiest neighbor, too.

Readers: Contribute your opening line in the comments!

The Clues Are in the Bottles

A few years ago I wrote about playing archeologist in the makeshift room off the kitchen in my house. It was (not very well) built mainly to serve as a passage between the kitchen and the stable where the horse lived, when the house was built (and a way for the servant girl to get to the clothesline out back). It was cobbled together from scraps of wood and mismatched doors and such, but by the time we got to it, it was crumbling. So we decided to replace the floor before it collapsed under us.

What I hadn’t known was that a prior owner (and I think I know which one) had been using one corner as a dump. He was planning to sell the house and move into the one next door, so he was getting rid of a lot of stuff. I had a wonderful time exploring the mess in the dirt, although I did get rid of most of it. But I kept a lot of the bottles that I found. Ah, those simpler times before plastic containers!

I did scrap the broken or chipped ones, but I still had a lot left. Now that I plan to sell this house, and have hired a clean-out group that is going to hold an online auction for some of the things, I wondered if anybody in the auction universe would like a batch of commercial bottles that probably date from before 1900. But that meant I had to clean them, or at least get the mud off them.

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It has been a rather fascinating project. I now have an idea of how those long-ago owners lived, based on their trash. And the bottles themselves are rather intriguing as a collection.

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The clear winner in terms of numbers are the few dozen bottles that once held Atwood’s Jaundice Bitters. I found myself wondering how much alcohol was in the stuff, since there were a lot of empties, so I had to look it up: 16.5%, or about a quarter of each bottle. Other ingredients varied from brand to brand. It was said to be good for jaundice, headache, dyspepsia, worms, dizziness, loss of appetite, darting pains, colds and fevers. It was also good for “cleansing the blood of humors and moistening the skin; also for liver complaints, strangury, dropsy, croup and phthisis.” (I confess that I had to look up strangury, which Merriam-Webster defines as “a slow and painful discharge of urine drop by drop produced by spasmodic muscular contraction of the urethra and bladder,” and I also checked phthisis because I had an ancestor who died of it—it turns out to be a fancy word for a form of tuberculosis.

Another one of the most plentiful ones are for blueing (anybody out there remember blueing? It’s supposed to make your white laundry whiter.) There are a few bottles that held stove blacking (that came with a built-in applicator). A few cute little bottles look like they once held ink. Maybe a few bottles that once held cosmetics? (When I washed them, the water came out pink or red.) The largest bottles were for cod liver oil.

The few cosmetics bottles and a couple of perfume bottles, along with all that blueing, testify to a woman’s presence in the house, although whether that was a servant or the lady of the house isn’t clear.

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But my clear favorite is the bottle with the molded title: Bartlett’s Cocaine of Boston. No label, no explanation. Only the one bottle. I had to look that one up to, and it turns out to have been . . . a hair tonic, which sold for decades. Whatever I do with the collection (most likely sell it at auction), I’m keeping that one.

It’s been an interesting glimpse into domestic life more than a century ago. What about you? Do you find old objects intriguing, or do you think they’re just trash?