• The murder of Dr. Burdell was the biggest news story of the first half of the 19th century, occupying the front pages of every major newspaper of the time.

• In the vein of The Alienist, Horan transports readers back to New York City of the 19th century with an unending series of suspenseful twists and turns, and addresses many issues that have remained relevant since that time—race and gender equality, a sensationalist media, the lure of real estate, political corruption, and more.

• Like Edith Wharton did with Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, Ellen Horan uses the life and experiences of Emma Cummingham to illuminate the plight of single and widowed women struggling to survive without the protection of a husband or family connections, under injust and unequal economic and sexual strictures of 19th-century society.

• 31 Bond Street borrows from trial transcripts, newspaper articles, and historical records to add rich detail to the novel.

It was the crime of the century . . .

31 Bond Street is a riveting first novel that draws its inspiration from perhaps the greatest tabloid scandal in 19th-century American history. When the brutally stabbed and nearly decapitated body of a society dentist is found in his townhouse in lower Manhattan, “Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell?” becomes the burning question consuming all of New York and the rest of America in the years before the Civil War. Ellen Horan’s thrilling debut re-examines the case, setting against the colorful backdrop of rough, vibrant mid-19th century New York.

Who did kill Dr. Burdell? Though there are no witnesses and no clues, jealous fingers point to Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed Burdell’s house and his servants. Rumored to be a black-hearted gold-digger with designs on the doctor’s name and fortune, Emma is immediately put under house arrest and soon charged with murder. A conviction is sure to catapult flamboyant district attorney Abraham Oakey Hall into the mayor’s seat. But one formidable obstacle stands in his way: the defense attorney Henry Clinton. Committed to justice and the law, Clinton will aid the vulnerable widow in her desperate fight to save herself from the gallows.

Set in 1857 New York, this gripping mystery is also a richly detailed excavation of a lost age. Horan vividly recreates a tumultuous era characterized by a sensationalist press, aggressive new wealth, a booming real estate market, corruption, rampant vice, racial conflict, economic inequality between men and women, and the erosion of the old codes of behavior. A tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics, this spellbinding narrative transports readers to a time that eerily echoes our own.