The community of historical fiction writers is a stunningly warm and welcoming group. Thanks to the more than sixty women who agreed to be interviewed for my #womenshistoryreads series at GreerMacallister.com—you just kept saying yes, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you to Fiona Davis, Susan Meissner, Kate Quinn, and Julia Whelan for early blurbs; to great friends like Robb Cadigan, Kristina McMorris, Michelle Von Euw, and Jenni L. Walsh for strategy and support; and to the members of the Fiction Writers’ Co-op for proving that good things actually can happen on Facebook. This wouldn’t be worth doing alone.
About the Author
Raised in the Midwest, GREER MACALLISTER is a novelist, poet, short story writer, and playwright who earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her debut novel, The Magician’s Lie, was a USA Today bestseller, an Indie Next pick, and a Target Book Club selection. It has been optioned for film by Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films. Her novel Girl in Disguise, also an Indie Next pick, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “a well-told, superb story.” A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Washington, DC.
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Praise for Woman 99
“Greer Macallister’s characters never fail to leap off the page into your very soul; you can’t help loving them, rooting for them, agonizing with them over the choices they must make. Woman 99 is richly and expertly woven with chilling historical details—you won’t soon forget what it was like to be behind the locked doors of Goldengrove asylum on a mission to save someone you love.”
—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of As Bright as Heaven
“Woman 99 is a gorgeous ode to the power of female courage. A resourceful Gilded Age heiress feigns madness and inveigles herself into an insane asylum, determined at all costs to rescue her fragile, unjustly committed sister, only to realize the horrors of the madhouse may keep them both prisoner forever. But when alliances are forged among the asylum women, many of whom are jailed because they are inconvenient rather than insane, all things become possible—even escape. Greer Macallister pens a nail-biter that makes you want to stand up and cheer.”
—Kate Quinn, New York Times–bestselling author of The Alice Network
“Macallister’s mastery of historical fiction is on full display in Woman 99. Her incisive voice brings a dark chapter of our past to life with unsettling contemporary resonance.”
—Julia Whelan, award-winning audiobook narrator and author of My Oxford Year
“A gripping story that exposes the Gilded Age’s tarnished veneer, when women who didn’t acquiesce to the standards of the day were locked away. Powerful and electrifying, Macallister is at the top of her game.”
—Fiona Davis, bestselling author of The Masterpiece and The Address
Praise for Girl in Disguise
“If you love historical fiction, you’re going to devour Girl in Disguise. The time, the place, the girl—this book takes you on a thrill ride with the first female detective, making her way by pluck and luck through the seedy streets of nineteenth-century Chicago, finding her place in a male-dominated world.”
—Melanie Benjamin, New York Times–bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue
“Greer Macallister brings the original Miss Pinkerton roaring back to life in this electrifying tale. Girl in Disguise is a rollicking nineteenth-century thrill ride, complete with clever disguises and coded messages, foiled plots and hidden agendas, lies, indiscretion, and forbidden love. Kate Warne is a scrappy, tough-as-nails detective who did a man’s job for the first time in American history. She lives and breathes again in this riveting novel.”
—Amy Stewart, New York Times–bestselling author of Girl Waits with Gun
“With cunning, guile, and a dash of desperation, Kate Warne charms her way into the old boys’ club of a mid-nineteenth-century Chicago detective agency and soon finds herself catapulted into a world of spies, rogues, and double-crossers. As she dons and sheds all manner of disguises, Kate discovers that she has a knack for subterfuge—and more than that, she likes it. Inspired by a real-life story, Greer Macallister has created a fast-paced, lively tale of intrigue and deception, with a heroine at its center so appealingly complicated that she leaps off the page.”
—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Orphan Train
“Macallister is becoming a leading voice in strong, female-driven historical fiction. Exciting, frightening, and unspeakably moving, Girl in Disguise reveals what one courageous woman endures to enact justice in a nation at war, and change the course of history.”
—Erika Robuck, nationally bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl
“All hail a mighty woman in a man’s world! Greer Macallister aims her pen at Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective, and hits the mark with this rousing, action-packed adventure. A book that brings to light a commanding and little-known contribution to American history.”
—Sarah McCoy, New York Times– and internationally bestselling author of The Mapmaker’s Children
“Girl in Disguise cleverly unearths the story of Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective. Fast-paced, subversive, and with rich prose, it’s everything a historical mystery should be. In the end, it will leave you stunned. And then you will want to read everything else Greer Macallister has ever written.”
—Ariel Lawhon, author of Flight of Dreams
“I was absolutely ensnared by Girl in Disguise, Greer Macallister’s unflinching investigation of what it means to be true to yourself while living a life of deception. Mysterious Kate Warne, who fought perception to become the first female Pinkerton detective, is just the kind of courageous, ingenious, fierce character I love. I could not stop turning pages as she dons disguises; tells lies; rubs shoulders with lady spies, hardened criminals, double agents, and President Lincoln; and manages to uncover the truth—not just about the crimes she investigates, but her own heart. Chock-full of fascinating ripped-from-the-headlines period details and intriguing historical personages, I drank this book down in a single shot.”
—Erin Lindsay McCabe, USA Today–bestselling author of I Shall Be Near to You
“From the underbelly of Chicago to the front lines of the Civil War, Girl in Disguise crackles with spirit, and the trailblazing Kate Warne is a character I would follow anywhere. In Macallister’s confident hands, this novel is packed full of adventure, moxie, and heart. I dare you not to get hooked.”
—Rae Meadows, author of I Will Send Rain and Mercy Train
“Macallister (The Magician’s Lie) pens an exciting, well-crafted historical novel featuring Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective in 1856 Chicago. Loaded with suspense and action, this is a well-told, superb story.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for The Magician’s Lie
“Smart, intricately plotted. . . . A richly imagined thriller.”
—People
“More bewitching than a crackling fire. . . . The battle of wits that plays out between these covers is best read curled up under the covers.”
—Oprah.com
“It’s a captivating yarn. . . . Macallister, like the Amazing Arden, mesmerizes her audience. No sleight of hand is necessary. An ambitious heroine and a captivating tale are all the magic she needs.”
—The Washington Post
“This debut novel is historical fiction that blends magic, mystery, and romance.”
—The Boston Globe, Pick of the Week
“[A] well-paced, evocative, and adventurous historical novel. . . . Top-notch.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The ride Macallister takes us on is a grand one. . . . At the end, you might find yourself rooting for the story so much, you’ll make your own disbelief disappear.”
—The Columbus Dispatch
“Macallister is as much of a magician as her subject, misdirecting and enchanting while ultimately leaving her audience satisfied with a grand finale.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“In her historical fiction debut, Macallister . . . has created a captivating world of enchantment and mystery that readers will be loath to leave.”
—Library Journal
“Like her heroine the Amazing Arden, Greer Macallister has created a blend of magic that is sure to delight her audience. The Magician’s Lie is a rich tale of heart-stopping plot turns, glittering prose, and a cast of complex, compelling characters. Reader beware: those who enter Macallister’s delicious world of magic and mystery won’t wish to leave!”
—Allison Pataki, New York Times–bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife
“A suspenseful and well-researched tale of magic, secrets, and betrayal that will keep you guessing until the end.”
—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times–bestselling author of The Engagements, Commencement, and Maine
“The Magician’s Lie is riveting, compelling, beautiful, frightening, evocative, and above all, magical. Don’t miss this immersive novel of suspense and wonder from an exciting new voice in historical fiction!”
—International bestseller M. J. Rose
“A riveting read with suspenseful turns, The Magician’s Lie takes you on an engaging and atmospheric journey through storytelling and illusion. Macallister draws on raw emotion and leaves you questioning just how much is left behind the curtain.”
—Sarah Jio, New York Times–bestselling author of Goodnight June and Blackberry Winter
“In The Magician’s Lie, Greer Macallister has created a rich tapestry of mystery, magic, and lost love. The novel drew me in with its lush details and edge-of-your-seat plot. The tale of the tragic Amazing Arden, a female magician, will have you questioning how the truth of a tale can be different than the material facts, and how what you feel can be stronger than the soundest logic.”
—Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife and The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
Also by Greer Macallister
The Magician’s Lie
Girl in Disguise
Copyright
Woman 99
Copyright © 2019 by Greer Macallister.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, by arrangement with Sourcebooks, Inc.
COVER DESIGN BY LAURA KLYNSTRA
COVER PHOTOGRAPH (FRONT) BY MIGUEL SOBREIRA/ARCANGEL
COVER PHOTOGRAPH (BACK) BY KIT LEONG/SHUTTERSTOCK
First Canadian edition
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Apart from well-known historical figures, any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Interior design © 2019 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
EPub Edition: MARCH 2019 EPub ISBN: 978-1-4434-5816-0
Version 01302019
Print ISBN: 978-1-4434-5814-6
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