Tempest In The Tea Room

It is the spring of 1811.

Rebecca Lyon and her family eagerly welcome Miss Elisheva Taylor and her brother Gabriel, a young physician, into their genteel London Jewish community. Yet the Taylors have barely acclimated to their new society when a mysterious and devastating illness strikes Mr. Taylor's patients, from the elderly Lady Marblehead to the poverty-stricken young orphans under his care... and it seems that they are being poisoned!

Is the new doctor to blame? Mr. Ezra Melamed, wealthy patron of the Jewish orphanage, would like to believe in Mr. Taylor's innocence. But with all fingers pointing his way, it will be difficult to prove that Mr. Taylor is the sincere man of medicine he portrays himself to be. Mr. Melamed's only clues are a mysteriously missing will, an old clothes man's bundle, and a cryptic letter from a Chassidic rebbe... Can he uncover the truth before the rest of London is poisoned too?

The Disappearing Dowry, the first book in the Ezra Melamed Mystery Series, won a 2010 Sydney Taylor Notable Book Award. In The Ruby Spy Ring, Regency England again comes to life in a dramatic tale of false accusations and long-lost relatives. Acclaimed author Libi Astaire has done it again in this third book in the series, combining the charm of historical fiction with the intriguing twist of a Jewish mystery.