I'm excited to welcome ELLEN HORAN, author of the fascinating new release, 31 BOND STREET. Click Ellen's name to view her gorgeous website.
A photo editor for books and magazines, Ellen Horan has worked on staff and in a freelance capacity for many publications, including Vanity Fair, Vogue, House & Garden, Forbes, andARTnews, as well as for a number of book publishers. 31 Bond Street is her first novel.
Behind the Book: Mayhem and murder in NYC
by Ellen Horan
I discovered the idea for 31 Bond Street one Saturday afternoon, years ago, while idly flipping through the bins in a print shop. I found a yellowed newspaper page with an etching of townhouses on a tree-lined street in New York City. At closer look, a crowd was assembled on the cobblestones before one of the homes. The caption said the address was 31 Bond Street and the date was 1857.
“Unspooling across every city paper was coverage of the murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell.”
The print shop was on Houston Street, just blocks away from Bond Street, which is a short street nestled between Soho and the Bowery. It was puzzling, because I knew of no townhouses on that single block. Not yet trendy or gentrified, there were only warehouses, car parks and the type of business that sells rusting scrap metal. Examining the page further, the story mentioned a crime at 31 Bond Street—a wealthy dentist had been brutally murdered inside his home.
I bought the print for $8 and followed the trail of that one page to the New York Public Library. At that time, the library still had newspapers on microfilm. Thinking I would have to dig for clues to this lost story, I pulled out The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The New York Daily Times, The New York Herald and The New York Tribune. Immediately, unspooling across every city paper, was coverage of the murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell. In the first half of 1857, his murder created a sensation that covered all 13 New York newspapers and spread to those of Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, then London, Paris and beyond. It remained in the headlines for months, as the newspapers competed to cover the investigation and the murder trial.
I became fascinated reading about the case firsthand. By sifting through the newspapers day by day, I learned the outcome as a 19th-century reader might, discovering the story through their morning paper at breakfast. I also learned about the era through the advertisements and news of the day. In 1857, New York was a vibrant and chaotic place, and urban life was marching forward at an accelerating pace. One hundred steamers left the ports every day and immigrants still disembarked from sailing vessels at the foot of the Battery. Women wore steel spring hoop skirts with adjustable bustles and paraded their fashions to the theatres and entertainments along Broadway. Rents had gone up and the Union ferry raised its rate to two cents. Canal Street was widened and a lunch of oysters and ice cream could be had on Houston Street.
There was no electricity or transatlantic cable and news took six weeks to cross the Atlantic. The country was debating the extension of slavery into the western territories. It was apparent, from reading the newspapers, that New York City was in the midst of an economic and cultural boom, and few, if anyone, imagined that just three years hence, the country would be plunged into crisis and civil war.
Thus the book was born. The process of writing unraveled slowly, much like an archeological dig. There were several mysteries that gripped me as I moved forward. There was an unsolved murder. There was domestic life on Bond Street, an actual street where ghostlike traces of the fine homes are still evident on the walls of the taller buildings today. There was a secret romantic entanglement between the murdered man and the suspect, and there were political and legal rivalries at the heart of the case. Real characters and dialogue from trial transcripts merged with fictional characters as the narrative evolved. And the city of New York retained a central and fascinating pull, as the setting of its own vanished past.
A book and magazine photo editor, Ellen Horan has worked forGlamour, Vanity Fair and many other publications. She lives in New York City. 31 Bond Street is her first novel. Visit her website to watch a trailer for the novel and find out more information.
31 Bond Street
Read the first chapter:
http://31bondstreet.com/31Bondexcerpt.pdf
Synopsis
The sensational murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell in his lower Manhattan townhouse was the biggest news story in the United States before the Civil War; “Who killed Dr. Burdell?” was the question that gripped the nation. Deftly interweaving fiction and fact, 31 Bond Street is a clever historical narrative that blends romance, politics, greed and sexual intrigue in a suspenseful drama.
When an errand boy discovers Burdell’s nearly decapitated body in the bedroom of his posh Bond Street home, there are no witnesses and virtually no clues. With the city up in arms over the vicious killing, District Attorney Abraham Oakey Hall immediately suspects Emma Cunningham, the striking young widow who has been living at 31 Bond Street with her two teenaged daughters, caring for Burdell’s home in exchange for a marriage proposal. But Burdell’s past is murky and his true intentions towards Emma Cunningham were questionable, leaving Emma with a plausible motive for murder. With the help of her defence attorney, Henry Clinton, Emma embarks on a legal drama to prove her innocence and spare herself from the gallows.
Set against the background of a bustling and corrupt New York City in 1857, 31 Bond Street is a fascinating archeological dig, taking the reader through the minutiae of a buried past, only to uncover circumstances that are shockingly contemporary: a sensationalist press, burgeoning new wealth, a booming real estate market, and race and gender conflicts. Ellen Horan’s gripping novel vividly exposes a small slice of lost history as it explores New York City on the eveof the Civil War.
Publishers Weekly
A real-life New York City murder case provides the basis for Horan's impressive fiction debut, which works better as a historical novel than as a whodunit. In 1857, Manhattan is horrified and fascinated by a grisly crime—the murder of dentist Harvey Burdell, found on his office floor stabbed more than a dozen times and with his throat cut. The ambitious district attorney, Oakey Hall, who's linked with the Tammany Hall political machine, quickly focuses on Emma Cunningham as the prime suspect. Cunningham, the victim's housekeeper, claims that she and Burdell were secretly married. Her sole hope for avoiding conviction for murder is crusading defense attorney Henry Clinton. Horan alternates deftly between the present and flashbacks to Cunningham's past, capturing both the complex inner lives of her characters and the feel of the times. She also creates exciting courtroom scenes, but some may find the mystery's resolution disappointing.
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Ellen's book is getting rave reviews:
http://www.theburtonreview.com/2010/03/giveaway-bo
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-3
http://thecrowdedleaf.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/rev
http://genregoroundreviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/31
http://www.romantictimes.com/books_review.php?book
Browse inside 31 BOND STREET here:
http://browseinside.harpercollins.ca/index.aspx?is
Ellen Horan
Ellen Horan was raised in Philadelphia and New York. She attended Hamilton/Kirkland College where she studied painting and history. After her undergraduate degree, she lived in France for a year as an au pair. She remained abroad for a second year after obtaining a grant to live and paint in the South of France.
After returning to New York City, she worked for photographers and photo agencies. She maintained an art studio while continuing to work freelance as a photo editor for magazines and books. She has worked on staff and freelance for many magazines including Vanity Fair, Vogue, House and Garden, Forbes, and Art News. In addition, she has worked for publishers including Rizzoli, Crown, Little, Brown, Random House and The Design Trust for Public Space on photo books on interiors, design and history.
After becoming the mother of an adopted daughter, Ji Tan Haines, she turned her attention to writing upon discovering an old newspaper clipping about the Burdell murder in New York City in 1857. She continues to live in downtown Manhattan, the setting of her first novel, 31 Bond Street.
Time and Again jillhsande wrote:
I look forward to reading your book. I love mysteries and I love books that go back in time in New York City. I read a short story by Jack Finney in 1985 that was about this murder. Because I was reading his book on the beaches of Mexico, I couldn't wait to get back to New York to find Bond St. I lived downtown and yet had never heard of it. So as soon as I got home, I drove around the village and finally found the street. In his book it was described as an elegant part of town- it hardly looked that way in 1985.
Jillhsande
I have that book - it's wonderful!
Ellen's book is great, but it's a lot darker than Jack Finney's book. 31 Bond Street centers around a particularly brutal murder. I love the fact that it's based on a real mystery!
