Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Murder at Rosecliff by Alyssa Maxwell

Book Description

August 1903. Emma and her husband Derrick are among the men in white tie and tails and the women wearing white gowns from the House of Worth at Tessie Oelrichs’s Bal Blanc, or White Ball, at Rosecliff, her grand cottage on Bellevue Avenue. There to cover the event of the season is young Ethan Merriman, society reporter for the Newport Messenger, the newspaper owned by Emma and Derrick.

It’s an utterly charming affair until a stranger intrudes flaunting a green-striped necktie and matching vest in defiance of their hostess’s theme. But his fashion crime is a mere misdemeanor compared to his intention to blackmail Mrs. Oelrichs by producing a compromising document supposedly signed by Tessie over a decade ago.

Insisting it’s a forgery but terrified of scandal, she agrees to his terms, but the blackmailer will not live to see payday. His body is found face down in a fountain before the party’s end. Beside him stands a very wet Ethan, who was seen being confronted by the man earlier in the evening. Coming to the aid of their luckless cub reporter, Emma and Derrick must sort through the white lies and blackened reputations to discover the identity of the true killer.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Murder At Rosecliff by Alyssa Maxwell does not disappoint per her other novels. 

In August 1903, Emma and her husband Derrick are among the men in white tie and tails and the women wearing white gowns from the House of Worth at Tessie Oelrichs’s Bal Blanc, or White Ball, at Rosecliff, her grand cottage on Bellevue Avenue. There to cover the event of the season is young Ethan Merriman, society reporter for the Newport Messenger, the newspaper owned by Emma and Derrick.

It’s an utterly charming affair until a stranger intrudes, flaunting a green-striped necktie and matching vest in defiance of their hostess’s theme. But his fashion crime is a mere misdemeanor compared to his intention to blackmail Mrs. Oelrichs by producing a compromising document supposedly signed by Tessie over a decade ago.

Insisting it’s a forgery, but terrified of scandal, she agrees to his terms, but the blackmailer will not live to see payday. His body is found face down in a fountain before the party’s end. Beside him stands a very wet Ethan, who was seen being confronted by the man earlier in the evening. Coming to the aid of their luckless cub reporter, Emma and Derrick must sort through the white lies and blackened reputations to discover the identity of the true killer.

The story is riveting from beginning to end with plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings. A bonus is the vivid depictions of Newport’s focus on class and gender division with real-life historical figures.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?

AM: As with each book in my “Gilded Newport Mysteries,” to develop story ideas I research the family who owned each house. In this case, Theresa Fair Oelrichs, or Tessie, who owned Rosecliff, was the daughter of one of the wealthiest mine-owners in the country. But before he became a millionaire, the Fairs lived in the mining camps of Virginia City, Nevada—as far away from the elegance and beauty of Newport, RI, as can be imagined. It was in these camps that Tessie spent her earliest years, until James Fair moved the family to one of the most fashionable areas of San Francisco. That meant that when she moved to the east coast, there was a lot people in society who didn’t know about her. In my mind, that meant there could be secrets in her past someone could use to blackmail her. And because mining was a rough industry run by ruthless men, it was easy to envision just the sort of scoundrel who might use her past against her.  

EC: Was the White Ball true?

AM: Yes! Tessie Oelrichs’s White Ball, or Bal Blanc, occurred in 1904, but I moved it up a year to fit my series timeline. The details I describe were taken mostly from newspaper articles written at the time—written by people with the same occupation as my main suspect, Ethan Merriman, who writes the society page for the Newport Messenger, owned and operated by Emma and her husband, Derrick. The expense for the multitude of white flowers, the white ships anchored just offshore, the food, the swans, etc. could have fed numerous poor families for a year. The female guests spent thousands on pure white gowns from Houses of Worth, Doucet, Lucille, and other famous designers of the times. It all would have created a breathtaking scene, especially with Rosecliff’s huge, airy ballroom with its cloudy sky mural painted on the ceiling, and the many doors on two sides that, when open, brought both the breezes from the ocean on one side and the floral scents from the Italian garden on the other to sweep through the room.

EC: How would you describe Solomon Wheeler? 

AM: He is emboldened, insolvent, boorish, rude, unscrupulous, dangerous, no scruples, ruthless, likes to destroy others by using their secrets against them. He is as low an individual as it’s possible to be. He uses people and throws them away without a second thought. He is also a slacker, looking for the easy way to make a buck, along with having a sense of entitlement to a lifestyle he hasn’t earned. He uses his father’s ousting from the Bonanza Kings (made up of James Fair and his three partners who owned the Comstock Lode, the silver mine that propelled them to unimagined wealth), to justify blackmailing Tessie, without ever admitting his father might have deserved what happened.

EC: How would you describe Tessie?

AM: Tessie Oelrichs was very real. She was a renowned beauty and possessed a confidence that paved her way into New York Society. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. Although a good twenty years younger than Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Mamie Fish, she joined those ladies to form society’s “Triumvirate.” As Caroline Astor aged and became less of a leading force in society, the Triumvirate stepped in to take her place. These ladies changed the rules to make society more inclusive (divorcees and people with New Money were more accepted), while at the same time establishing new rules about who would be included and who would be given the cold shoulder. We see examples of that in Murder at Rosecliff where a woman who tries too hard to be accepted is essentially rebuffed.  

EC: What about the mansion, Rosecliff?

AM: Like Alva Belmont did with the building of Marble House, Tessie was involved in the design and construction of Rosecliff from start to finish. She spent many a day at the house supervising the work, often changing her mind and ordering the carpenters to rip out what they’d done and start fresh. On one of those days, a carpenter’s tack went flying and hit Tessie in the eye. As a result, she was blind in that eye for the rest of her life. Despite this, she continued to be involved in the building of her summer cottage and remained a formidable figure among society’s Four Hundred. It’s worth noting that Tessie had married Hermann Oelrichs, a shipping magnate, but after the birth of their only child, a son, they lived basically separate lives. They never divorced, however, remaining married in name only until Hermann died in 1906.

EC: How would you describe Ethan and what was his role?

AM: Unlike Emma, who early in her journalism career chafed at being relegated to the society pages (she wanted to report on hard news), Ethan loves recording the details of Newport’s grand affairs. He is a gentle soul who loves beauty and sees it as being as important to life as the more serious matters covered in newspapers. He attends the White Ball as a reporter. His job is to circulate through the crush, document the details of what people were wearing and such, and interview those guests who wished to be interviewed, describing their latest travels, engagements, and soirees for the reading public. On one hand the Four Hundred wanted their privacy, but on the other they enjoyed displaying their wealth, and society columns were one way to do that. When Ethan is accused of murdering Solomon Wheeler based on rather incriminating but circumstantial evidence, Emma refuses to believe he’s capable of such an act. At times she seems to be the only person whose faith is unwavering, but she remains a fierce friend trying to prove Ethan’s innocence.

EC: Once again, this book goes into societal roles:  how does it fit with Detective Myers appearing to have a chip on his shoulder towards the wealthy?

AM: Like many year-round Newporters, Detective Myers sees the wealthy summer set as frivolous and wasteful. As I mentioned, the amount of money spent on the White Ball could have fed entire families over an extended period. Of course, the wealthy did support many charities and were involved in philanthropic projects to better the lives of the poor, but they also created impoverished populations due to how they treated their workers. The Four Hundred controlled all major industry in America at that time, and by general agreement chose to pay their workers poverty-level wages with none of the benefits we enjoy today. This unfairness was seen as the right of business owners, and employees who if they didn’t like it could work elsewhere. The problem was, the situation would be similar wherever they tried to find employment. 

EC: What about Detective Myers?

AM: I portray Detective Myers as grouchy, arrogant, condescending, and downright mean at times, but part of his attitude is somewhat justifiable. After all, the wealthy came to Newport each summer to party and have fun, and treated Newport as a kind of private country club, expecting the ordinary Newporters to either serve them or stay out of the way. And they weren’t always held accountable for their actions. In this, some things haven’t changed. Newport is like a small town during the winter months, but come summer there is a population explosion of tourists and summer residents who come purely to enjoy – often without much thought for the people who live there year-round.

EC: Did you also want to point out that the Upper Class appears arrogant to those that have a lower-class status, and deems them unfit, not rich enough, not fashionable, and not clever?

AM: It was easy to fall short of the expectations of others—as it still is today. Let’s face it, people constantly judge each other, finding in others the shortcomings they themselves don’t want to admit to having. It creates an “us and them” mentality in which a group will allow itself to feel superior to others. Especially among the women of the Four Hundred, creating social boundaries was like structuring a business, with upper management lording it over everyone else – much like how their husbands ran their businesses. In a world where women didn’t hold positions of power in the business or political spheres, these social structures allowed them to feel empowered and in control of their lives. Unfortunately, as certain individuals rose to positions of social prominence, those lower down on the ladder were made to feel not as good, second best, and of little importance. It wasn’t until the Suffrage movement truly got going during the second decade of the twentieth century that women managed to see past class boundaries and work for a common cause.

EC: Why were people against Emma building a school for girls?

AM: Schools for girls were not uncommon, but most of them were finishing schools where young ladies were taught deportment and etiquette along with “feminine” subjects such as language, art, and music. Such schools were generally approved of. What Emma has in mind is a high school where all subjects are taught, including higher mathematics and the sciences, where a girl can get the same education as a boy. Coed public high schools did exist, and Newport’s Rogers High School was coed at the time (and integrated), but Emma believes the coed environment puts pressure on girls to take home economics classes while the boys take chemistry. Unfortunately, many people take issue with the idea of a completely non-gender-biased curriculum. They don’t see the sense in educating a girl to such standards when she’ll only marry and have children. They don’t appreciate that the young ladies at Emma’s school will have choices in life that don’t necessarily lead to being wives and mothers. 

EC: Is Elizabeth Carter Brooks a real person?

AM: Yes, Elizabeth Carter Brooks was a real person. She was born in New Bedford, MA (not far from Newport) in 1867 to former slaves, and attained degrees in architecture and teaching. She became the first African American woman to teach at a public school in New Bedford, and was involved in local and national organizations to better the lives of African American women and girls, including helping to found the local chapter of the NAACP in New Bedford. In 1897 she helped establish the New Bedford Home for the Aged, the first of its kind in the city, and in 1908 designed its permanent building. 

EC: What role does Elizabeth Carter Brooks play in the story?

AM: As Emma became caught up in the dilemma of male architects being unwilling to work with her, I decided to search for whether there were any female architects at that time. I was delighted to discover Elizabeth Carter Brooks and couldn’t imagine a better architect for Emma to work with on the design for her unconventional school. 

EC: Next book?

AM: The next “Gilded Newport Mystery” will be Murder at Malbone, a July 2027 release. Although the present house dates to 1848, the property goes back to the mid-1700s, to an original house that burned down. It was owned by a Colonel Godfrey Malbone, a wealthy shipping merchant and slave trader. Because of this history, I explore themes of slavery and its consequences, as well as the notion that unsettled spirits might be haunting Malbone, perhaps even responsible for the death of a young man. The back cover blurb:

A fatal Fourth of July fireworks mishap in Newport, Rhode Island, proves to be no accident, and newspaper editor Emma Cross Andrews must sort out who turned a celebration into an incendiary act of cold-blooded murder.

THANK YOU!!

***