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Devils of Forsythe
a novel by Quillen deBruney
"Simultaneously a period piece, a crime yarn, and a feminist parable that manages to still ring true more than 100 years after the events it depicts." ~Kirkus Reviews
When a young woman is discovered blood‑soaked and catatonic at the scene of her parents' murders on the eve of America’s entry into WWI, a pioneering attorney must unearth secrets buried for years by a prominent family before fear and prejudice set her Steel Belt city ablaze. * * * In 1916, as war rages in Europe, the American Steel Belt’s melting pot simmers with industry and intolerance, primed to boil over if anyone turns up the heat. Ada Reilly is no stranger to prejudice; as the first and only woman practicing law in her city, she confronts it daily while clawing out a toehold in a profession dominated by men. So when a prominent couple is murdered and their youngest daughter, nineteen-year-old Cora Blanden, is found blood‑soaked and catatonic at the scene, Ada doesn’t need to be asked twice: she dives headlong into the case of the decade. The press sensationalizes the tragedy, and Cora's sister, Lydia, is happy to sate the city's desire for scapegoats. But Ada won't be a pawn in Lydia's games. As she navigates the animus engulfing the city and works to unearth the truth buried within Cora's vacant stares, Ada finds an unlikely guide in the Blandens’ young housemaid, Bess. From her place in the shadows, Bess had an unfettered view of the family’s unraveling: the zealotry that governed the household, the sadness that clings to Cora like a shroud . . . and the darkness that haunted Cora's childhood.
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Child of June
"Alluring and devastating in equal measure, this novel ... is a poignant reflection on joy's fragility and the resilience necessary to survive its loss." ~BookLife by Publishers Weekly (Editor's Pick).
When her first love reenters her life on the eve of Austria’s collapse, a woman who has spent decades guarding her heart must decide if her duty lies with the man who defined her, the life she has built, or the country that is slipping through fingers. * * * In 1914, Vienna hums with whispers of war. Nationalist tensions are on the rise, the imperial parliament has been suspended, and the heir to the throne has been assassinated. Yet young Ilse Eder lives a life apart, secluded on her brother-in-law’s country estate. Headstrong but unworldly, she finds herself entangled in an illicit romance with the aristocratic Junius von Hess. As Ilse plunges into a world of deception and betrayal, the choices she makes will reverberate across decades. The woman who rises from the ashes of first love is a far cry from the artless creature Ilse once was. Sophisticated, accomplished, and doggedly disciplined, Ilse holds all Vienna under her spell, even as she builds an unconventional life behind closed doors. No one sees through her exquisitely polished façade. No one, that is, until Junius von Hess comes back into her life. Veneers of glamor and romance belie a grittier realism at Child of June’s core. In her debut novel, deBruney takes readers on a journey through twenty years of Austrian history. From the onset of World War I through the turbulent interwar years and the fall of the First Austrian Republic, Ilse’s story unfolds as her country slowly unravels.
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