A Deadly Affection: Book One in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford Mystery Series by Cuyler Overholt

Image provided by Sourcebooks.

              I was only going to order a catalog, but as I looked at the home page of the Bas Bleu website, a couple of their featured books caught my eye.  One of those books was A Deadly Affection.  It took a couple of passes for me to actually see what the book was as the images kept flipping, but the cover was intriguing, so I kept trying.  Once I was able to figure out the book I was trying to catch, I reserved it from the library and found a whole new series to be excited about.  

                It’s 1907, and Dr. Genevieve Summerford is thrilled to start her career as a psychiatrist.  Getting her degree was not an easy feat as she is a woman in a time when women are not supposed to be doctors.  With so many people doubting her abilities simply because of her gender, the last thing Genevieve needs is for anything to go wrong while she is practicing.  Which, of course, it does.

                Concentrating on how grief can cause physical ailments in a person, Genevieve conducts sessions with a group of women at a local church.  After the very first session, one of the women, Elizabeth Miner, lets Genevieve know about a baby she had years ago.  The baby, a girl, was taken away from Elizabeth by the doctor without her consent.  Now she wants the doctor, Dr. Herman Hauptfuhrer, to tell her what happened to her daughter.  Elizabeth (also referred to as Eliza) intends to go to his office and ask him about her daughter.  It is a question that goes terribly wrong.

                While Elizabeth meets with Dr. Hauptfuhrer, he is killed.  As Elizabeth was the only known person in the office, she is the obvious suspect.  Genevieve, however, does not think Elizabeth could have committed the murder.  At least she hopes Elizabeth didn’t.  Genevieve encouraged Elizabeth to question the doctor to some extent, and she would hate to find out that anything she said led to murder.

                In order to help Elizabeth clear her name, Genevieve must turn to someone she never thought she would ever see again: Simon Shaw.  At one time a stable hand for her family, Simon is now a district captain.  A politician, Simon makes sure to take care of his constituents, whoever they may be.  Without Simon’s influence to the right people, Genevieve knows Elizabeth will never get a fair shot with the police or in the courts.  Genevieve also knows that without Simon’s good word she won’t get the time she needs to figure out what really happened.

                With so much anger still lingering over how he and Genevieve parted so many years ago, it takes some convincing for Simon to agree to help Elizabeth.  Even though the incident between them happened when they were teenagers, Simon still holds the aftermath close to his heart.  He is very reluctant to forgive, but he is willing to at least hear Elizabeth’s side of the story.  Only then will he decide if he will help Elizabeth further.  This little opening is all Genevieve needs to prove Elizabeth needs their help.     

                Even with Simon’s good word to the proper authorities, helping Elizabeth is a lot easier said than done.  To make matters worse, another person is found dead and a mysterious illness is discovered.  It is an illness that could be used to ensure Elizabeth is found guilty.

                While Genevieve tries to help Elizabeth, she must also deal with her own guilt.  As a child, her brother, Conrad, was killed in an accident.  Genevieve was supposed to be watching over him, but she went inside for a few moments, leaving her brother on his own.  Upon her return, Genevieve found Conrad up in a tree.  Not supposed to be climbing trees, Genevieve tried to help Conrad down, but he fell and died.  Ever since Genevieve has been trying to win her way back into her father’s heart.  But with the death of her brother and the teenage incident with Simon, this feat looks to be impossible.  Maybe with her psychiatry career and her attempts to prove Elizabeth’s innocence, Genevieve will finally be able to prove herself, even if it’s only to herself and in her own mind.

                Genevieve’s father and the chauvinism of other men in this book drove me crazy.  Pretty much every time Genevieve was with her father I wanted to scream at her to stand up and tell him off.  She did very quickly with the other men, but not her own father.  Fortunately, Genevieve spent most of her time away from her father and the other aggravating men.  She was able to concentrate on the mystery surrounding Elizabeth as well as get to know again the boy she was separated from so long ago.  By the end of the book it seemed as though Simon would not be going away, despite some people’s wishes.  As this is the first book in a series, I am very curious to see how things play out between Genevieve and Simon as the series goes on.