Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Of Dubious and Questionable Memory
    Of Dubious and Questionable Memory
    Of Dubious and Questionable Memory
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Of Dubious and Questionable Memory

    By Rachel McMillan

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Ne'er-Do-Wells of New England—You've Been Warned!
    Merinda Herringford and Jem Watts are never lacking for mysteries of the curious and commonplace, but lately business has been a little less curious and a lot more common.

    With only missing jewelry and a kidnapped rooster on the case docket, Merinda is bored stiff. Jem welcomes the reprieve as she settles into married life, attempting to learn the domestic skills that have cunningly evaded her as a bachelor girl detective.    

    The lull in business is short-lived when a telegram arrives from the detective duo's suffragette friend, Martha Kingston, detailing the mysterious disappearance of a school chum's sister in Concord, Massachusetts. 

    No sooner do Jem and Merinda arrive in the States to investigate than they find themselves embroiled in a world of strange affairs, purloined letters, and a baffling mystery whose clues lead directly to Orchard House, the homestead made famous by its long-time resident, Louisa May Alcott.  

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarvest House Publishers
    Release dateMay 31, 2016
    ISBN9780736968799
    Of Dubious and Questionable Memory
    Author

    Rachel McMillan

    Rachel McMillan is the author of The London Restoration, The Mozart Code, the Herringford and Watts mysteries, the Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries, and the Three Quarter Time series of contemporary Viennese romances. She is also the author of Dream, Plan, Go: A Travel Guide to Inspire Independent Adventure. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada. Visit her online at rachelmcmillan.net; Instagram: @rachkmc; Facebook: @rachkmc1; Twitter: @rachkmc; Pinterest: @rachkmc.

    Read more from Rachel Mc Millan

    Related to Of Dubious and Questionable Memory

    Titles in the series (6)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      An Act of Kindness

      Dec 6, 2022

      An Act of Kindness
      3 min read

    • Article

      One Step At A Time

      Aug 12, 2019

      One Step At A Time
      4 min read

    • Article

      Your Page

      Mar 2, 2022

      I want to thank Maggie MacKellar for her article Dog Days in the February issue of Country Style. I had tears welling in my eyes when I read those beautiful words. It’s just how I feel for my ageing Shih tzu, who knows all my secrets and who has my h

      4 min read

    • Article

      Where to Shop & Buy

      Aug 10, 2021

      Pages 13–14: Jan Karon is the #1New York Times best-selling author of twenty-fi ve books. The Mitford Museum in Hudson, North Carolina, pays tribute to the novelist and her beloved Mitford series. To learn more about Jan, visit her website at mitford

      2 min read

    • Article

      Light, Color & Joy

      Dec 14, 2021

      Light, Color & Joy
      1 min read

    • Article

      You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down

      Apr 20, 2022

      You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Timeless Transformation

      Sep 5, 2023

      A Timeless Transformation
      1 min read

    • Article

      Southern Splendor

      Dec 14, 2021

      Southern Splendor
      2 min read

    • Article

      Home Made Personal

      Dec 14, 2021

      Home Made Personal
      2 min read

    • Article

      Curated Charm

      Sep 5, 2023

      Curated Charm
      3 min read

    • Article

      Feels Like Home

      Dec 14, 2021

      Feels Like Home
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Lauren Francis-Sharma

      Dec 16, 2021

      These are stories and essay collections written by and about people who are interested in examining the world. This is what I needed in books this year, so I offer them to you, as a healing balm for all our 2021 wounds. The post A Year in Reading: La

      5 min read

    • Article

      Third Time’s the Charm

      Mar 19, 2024

      Third Time’s the Charm
      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jan 5, 2022

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Escape Route

      Jul 6, 2023

      Escape Route
      3 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Mar 28, 2023

      Editor’s Letter
      1 min read

    • Article

      Vancouver

      Mar 5, 2019

      Vancouver
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Too Much’: Featured Nonfiction from Rachel Vorona Cote

      Feb 25, 2020

      In Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today, Cote examines how the "unspoken rules" that govern the expression of women’s emotional and physical desires date back to the 19th century. The post ‘Too Much’: Featured Nonfiction from Ra

      6 min read

    • Article

      Making Merry

      Nov 9, 2021

      Come Christmastime, Karissa Gilliam fills every space she can get her hands on with holiday spirit. “I want my family and guests to feel at home and comfortable, so I like to try to do that with my décor,” she says. Through inventive DIYs and the dis

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Farm for Family

      Nov 29, 2022

      A Farm for Family
      2 min read

    • Article

      Too late FOR LOVE?

      Jun 8, 2022

      Too late FOR LOVE?
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Scarlet PEBBLE

      Feb 28, 2024

      The Scarlet PEBBLE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Country Haven

      May 24, 2022

      Country Haven
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Time Of Miracles

      Oct 16, 2023

      A Time Of Miracles
      3 min read

    • Article

      Christmas at Mount Vernon

      Oct 26, 2021

      Christmas at Mount Vernon
      1 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Dec 23, 2019

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Of Dubious and Questionable Memory

    3/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Of Dubious and Questionable Memory - Rachel McMillan

      BOHEMIA"

      Chapter One

      October 1911

      It all could have been avoided had we not accused Henry Tipton, Chief of Police, of stealing his neighbor’s rooster. This accusation, I must note, was made before we were in possession of all the facts. My associate, Merinda Herringford, and I had very little to go on other than an anonymous note saying the bird was in danger.

      Later, when our feather-flurried chase ended poorly, the Toronto Globe and Mail would run an article featuring a rather unflattering picture of Merinda and me in pursuit of the blasted bird. This would be but the tip of the iceberg of our humiliation, proving ever more true Sherlock Holmes’s belief that it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.

      Rather than data, Merinda had a hunch. The Herringford and Watts detective business had been experiencing a bit of a lull, and perhaps that is why Merinda jumped to conclusions when the note arrived. I had no time for mysteries that day. I was preoccupied with memorizing the jam-making section of Flora Merriweather’s Guide to Domestic Bliss. I was determined to master a few rudimentary housekeeping skills. (An astute reader might wonder what in heaven’s name was I thinking in attempting jam in October so far out of season. I had been able to find some late-season blackberries from Murdoch’s grocer—paying more than I ever had for produce—and decided to surprise my new husband, Ray.)

      When Merinda invited me to sally forth, I quickly moved the jam from the stove and accompanied her, realizing halfway down Sumach Street that I had used salt instead of sugar and the already burned concoction would smell something dreadful when Ray returned to the soot-stained kitchen (yet one more example of my less-than-exemplary domestic capabilities). But I put the kitchen out of my mind. I was blindly focused on the case at hand. So blind that just as we arrived at Chief Tipton’s home, our mission was truncated by my face-first collision with a weaselly-faced man. He was wearing the badge of the Morality Squad, the plainclothes detectives who were tasked with cleaning up the streets… and would take any excuse to lock up a couple of wayward females.

      I squeaked and stumbled backward, tripping over the curb in the process and tumbling into a mud puddle. My husband’s second-best bowler hat fell from my head, and the long braid of hair that had been coiled underneath it came down over my shoulder.

      Rats! I squeaked.

      You’re a woman! cackled Weasel Face. Herringford and Watts, as I live and breathe!

      Jemima, Merinda sighed, you’re really not very good at this, are you?

      To add insult to injury, I could do little to salvage Ray’s hat as we were dragged off to St. Jerome’s Reformatory for Vagrant and Incorrigible Females, Merinda bellowing the whole way about roosters and the Chief of Police not being above the law.

      The iron door of the gated institution echoed behind us with a thud.

      Surely you can contact our particular friend and newly promoted Inspector Jasper Forth! Merinda called. But no one was listening.

      The matron appeared with nondescript gray cotton dresses folded in her arms, her mouth tight as if she perpetually sucked on lemons. Everything off, she said with a hiss of disgust. Everything. And she looked pointedly at my wedding ring.

      My ring? I squeaked. But surely…

      Everything. A respectable married woman wouldn’t be here in the first place, she huffed.

      We washed in freezing water and coarse lye soap. And then we were shoved into a cell.

      Merinda’s eyes snapped around the dark, drafty room and her lips twitched. This is a bit of a pickle. She took in the thin uniform and the ratty wool blankets. But also a bit of a lark!

      I picked caked mud from my fingers, angry at the trap into which we had unintentionally fallen. Toronto’s Morality Squad had wanted to lock up the notorious trouser-wearing, bowler-hat-sporting lady detectives for an age. Catching us just as we were arriving at Chief Tipton’s home was a coup for them. Would they ever let us out again?

      Now, cloistered in our frigid cell with a cracked window that did little to keep out the autumn air, I had dwindling tolerance for Merinda and her insufferably good mood.

      Why is it that whenever we are hired by a man, it’s for some problem including fowl? Merinda flopped back on the hard slat of a bed and folded her arms behind her head. Honestly, it’s a bit of a trial trying to establish Toronto’s premiere consulting detective business when we’re dashing after roosters.

      But we weren’t hired. We just got a note, I said sourly.

      I should have smelled a rat the moment I saw that message. Merinda did her best to fluff the hard pillow on her wooden slat of a bed. Tipton clearly wanted the Morality Squad to lure us into this exact situation!

      Time ticked onward. A loud knock at the door came not from Jasper as I had hoped, but rather the matron. She announced where supper would be served.

      Merinda and I opted against the meal. Neither of us hungry, we stayed in our room. I tried to sleep, but every tick and creak in the vacuous hall outside kept me on edge.

      Cracker jacks! It’s Jasper’s birthday party tomorrow. Merinda sat up in her bed at

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1