Largely limited to armchair travel during the coronavirus pandemic, readers in need of a little vicarious getaway might like to be transported to a time long past in Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell. Set, in part, at the Breakers mansion in Newport, RI not long after it was built, this historical mystery introduces readers to something of an American version of Downton Abbey. The Breakers, owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, was built in the 1890s and required plenty of staff, both inside and out-, to keep the place running.
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Mysterious Goings-On in Newport, RI
Author Alyssa Maxwell introduces us to life in Newport, RI at all levels. Main character Emmaline Cross, a less-well-off Vanderbilt relation, mixes with her high-end cousins as well as all sorts of workers in Newport, RI as she tries to find a murderer after a never-do-well but possibly innocent relation has been accused of the crime.
![The Breakers in Newport, RI intrigued then and still does now. Photo credit: Detroit Publishing Co, C. C. & Detroit Publishing Co, P. (ca. 1899) The Breakers from the gate, Newport, R.I. Newport Newport. Rhode Island United States, ca. 1899. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016801243/.](https://i0.wp.com/bashfuladventurer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-breakers-newport-ri-LOC-e1601943207763.jpg?resize=560%2C439&ssl=1)
Not being as well off as the Vanderbilts doesn’t mean that our turn-of-the-last-century heroine doesn’t have a house or servants of her own. Cross is a freelance writer not too pleased to be relegated to the women’s pages of the newspaper or to be told to let the men handle the murder investigation.
As Cross gets closer to the truth, readers are treated to glimpses of life more than 100 years ago. Marvel at how people traveled, how they obtained clothing, who cooked their meals and cleaned their houses, and how they communicated when telephones were still quite new inventions.
![The Breakers, a mansion in Newport, RI, comes alive in Alyssa Maxwell's mystery, Murder at the Breakers. Photo credit: Hunt, R. M., Child, F. H., photographer. Cornelius Vanderbilt "Breakers," Newport, R.I. / Frank H. Child, photographer, Newport, R.I. Newport Rhode Island, None. [Newport, r.i., between 1893 and 1895?] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2014645397/.](https://i0.wp.com/bashfuladventurer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-breakers-newport-ri-1893-LOC.jpg?resize=560%2C465&ssl=1)
Lines from Murder at the Breakers Worthy of These Pandemic Times
From the pages of Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell:
“Emma, darling, in our world, the distinction between an honest businessman and a dishonest one is exceedingly scant, and rarely discussed.”
Alyssa Maxwell, Murder at the Breakers
“Men of my uncle’s caliber protected each other for the simple reason that they each harbored secrets not even their families could imagine.”
Alyssa Maxwell, Murder at the Breakers
“From now on I’m going to be more charitable with my time, and show my old friend she’s not alone.”
Alyssa Maxwell, Murder at the Breakers
Does the Book Make You Want to Go There?
It’s nice that Murder at the Breakers brings readers back to a moment in time when the mansions of Newport, RI were new and were used for more than house tours and weddings. In this book, these summer houses—and the people who lived in them and who served in them—come alive in ways that they do not, necessarily, in person, now.
![Life for a certain set in Newport, RI in the 1890s included visits to the social club known as the Casino. Photo credit: Detroit Publishing Co, C. C. & Detroit Publishing Co, P. (ca. 1905) Court of the casino, Newport, R.I. Newport Newport. Rhode Island United States, ca. 1905. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016801092/.](https://i0.wp.com/bashfuladventurer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/casino-newport-ri.jpg?resize=560%2C448&ssl=1)
But a tour of Newport’s mansions today can certainly be brought more alive with a book such as this one. Fortunately, Murder at the Breakers is one book of a series of mysteries set in Newport.
—Lori Tripoli
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