"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bled," by Joseph S. D'Agnese, in Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology, edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Short, 2024.
I have a story in this book.
This nice historical tale is the third appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer, Joseph S. D'Agnese.
Greenwich Village has been a magnet for the artistic and the different for a long time. This story is set in 1859 when such people flocked to Pfaff's a German-owned tavern. When a theatre critic is murdered there one night it draws unwanted attention to the place. Things go on there that might get the place shut down if the police find out about it.
Clearly what is needed is an amateur sleuth who knows the place and the people and that turns out to be... Walt Whitman. The poet is a regular, as is his acquaintance the famous illustrator Thomas Nast. (It would have been cool if Nast could play Watson, but I suppose there was too much Whitman couldn't let him know.)
Complicating the case is the fact that the critic was stabbed while sitting with a glass of poison. Was this two attempts at murder, or a botched suicide, or something else?
Fascinating story with great period detail.
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