Murder at the Tremont Theatre: The First Porridge Sisters Adventure

Murder at the Tremont Theatre is the first Porridge Sisters Mystery, an historically accurate whodunit. Robber barons still rule the Boston roost in 1908, new transportation systems link neighborhoods, police acquire their first motorized vehicles, vaudeville theatres large and small bring together various ethnicities, and pushcart markets remain a vestige of Colonial Boston while specialty stores lure shoppers downtown. Rooming houses on the fringes of downtown shelter Boston’s vulnerable poor, and newsboys on every corner shout the sensational headlines of the day—“Singing Star Rosetta Rice Murdered!” A crime of passion or an unintended mishap within a larger conspiracy? Inspector Brody and the news rags call it a crime of passion. The Porridge sisters believe otherwise. Lavinia and Florrie, vegetarian proprietors of Portridge Arms (hence the pun on their name) run the ‘boarding house for theatricals’ where Brody’s only suspect is lodging. An assault and attempted arson pull the Porridge Sisters into the investigation along with an assortment of Boston Sydney Austin Boniface (an old courtly actor with a long memory), Tommy Shields (a street-smart, ten-year old newsboy), Nathan Furst (booking agent who contracted Rosetta Rice to play the Tremont Theatre), Ira and Joshua Wood (father and son owners of the Tremont), Dudley Pierce (Rosetta Rice’s attorney and executor), and an assortment of thugs—each holding a few clues to the mystery.