Thoreau in Phantom Bog

Someone is targeting Massachusetts conductors on the Underground Railroad in the pseudonymous Oak’s solid third Henry David Thoreau mystery (after 2014’s Thoreau on Wolf Hill). In the spring of 1848, Julia Pelletier offers to help Thoreau, her transcendental philosopher friend, in his effort to hide runaway slaves, in part to make up for the profits that her brutish husband, Jacques, made from human trafficking in the West Indies. She soon finds herself in the middle of a whodunit when Ezra Tripp, a fellow member of the underground, is found shot dead. Julia’s involvement only deepens when she harbors runaways herself, and she comes under suspicion from both a Southern slave catcher and the local constable. The murder of another member of the organization raises the stakes. Thoreau is again an able investigator, and the pre–Civil War setting is well integrated into the story, even though a subplot involving Julia’s complex love life crosses into melodrama. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Sept.)