Book description
Can death bring a man back to life? When UW Professor Benjamin Bradshaw
discovers a despised colleague dead inside the Faraday Cage of the
Electric Machine, his carefully controlled world shatters. The facts
don't add up-the police shout murder-and Bradshaw is the lone suspect.
To protect his young son and clear his name, he must find the killer.
Seattle in 1901 is a bustling blend of frontier attitude and
cosmopolitan swagger. The Snoqualmie Falls Power Plant lights the city,
but to most Seattleites, electricity is new-fangled and dangerous. The
public wants a culprit-they want Bradshaw behind bars. The killer wants
Bradshaw dead. His life and liberty threatened, Bradshaw discovers the
thrill of investigation as he's thrust deeper into the hunt. Questions
abound. How had the Electric Machine's Tesla Coil delivered a fatal
shock? Was the murder personal-or connected to President McKinley's
planned visit? Were students involved, or in danger? And why had
Bradshaw's best friend, Henry, fled to Alaska the day of the murder?
When Henry's niece Missouri appears on Bradshaw's porch in need of a
home, her unorthodox views and femininity confuse and intrigue him as he
struggles to protect his own haunting secret. Danger and death lurk
everywhere-disguised as accidents. Has Bradshaw come alive again only to
lose all he holds dear? Before it's too late, will he discover the
circuit path that led to a spark of death? Bernadette Pajer is a
graduate of the University of Washington (Bothell) where she studied CLA
(Cultural, Literature, and the Arts) in the Interdisciplinary Arts and
Science program. Publisher's Weekly called Pajer's A SPARK OF DEATH, The
First Professor Bradshaw Mystery a "deft, highly entertaining
debut" and Judith Reveal of the NY Journal of Books said A SPARK OF
DEATH is a "breathless journey from beginning to end."
Research is Pajer's favorite activity, and she happily delves into
Seattle's past and the early days of electrical invention as she plots
Professor Bradshaw's investigations.
