Quiet Dell Hardcover - 2013

From one of AmericaâÈçs most accomplished and acclaimed fiction writers, a spectacularly riveting novel based on a real-life multiple murder by a con man who preyed on widowsâÈ' a story that has haunted Jayne Anne Phillips for more than four decades

In Chicago in 1931, Asta Eicher, mother of three, is lonely and despairing, pressed for money after the sudden death of her husband. She begins to receive seductive letters from a chivalrous, elegant man named Harry Powers, who promises to cherish and protect her, ultimately to marry her and to care for her and her children. Weeks later, all four Eichers are dead.

Emily Thornhill, one of the few women journalists in the Chicago press, becomes deeply invested in understanding what happened to this beautiful family, particularly to the youngest child, Annabel, an enchanting girl with a precocious imagination and sense of magic. Bold and intrepid, Emily allies herself with a banker who is wracked by guilt for not saving Asta. Emily goes to West Virginia to cover the murder trial and to investigate the story herself, accompanied by a charming and unconventional photographer who is equally drawn to the case.

Driven by secrets of their own, the heroic characters in this magnificent tale will stop at nothing to ensure that Powers is convicted. Mesmerizing and deeply moving, Quiet Dell is a tragedy, a love story, and a tour de force of obsession and imagination from one of AmericaâÈçs most celebrated writers.

Details

• Title Quiet Dell
• Author Jayne Anne Phillips
• Binding Hardcover
• Edition 1st/1st
• Pages 464
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Scribner Book Company, New York
• Date 2013-10-15
• ISBN 9781439172537 / 1439172536
• Weight 1.52 lbs (0.69 kg)
• Dimensions 9.3 x 6.38 x 1.31 in (23.62 x 16.21 x 3.33 cm)
• Library of Congress subjects Mystery fiction, Historical fiction
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013016013
• Dewey Decimal Code 813.54

âÈêQuiet Dell has all the elements of a murder mystery, but its emotional scope is larger and more complex. It combines a strange, hypnotic and poetic power with the sharp tones of documentary evidence. It offers a portrait of rural America in a time of crisis and dramatizes the lives of a number of characters who are fascinating and memorable.âÈë