The Hanging Women

The Hanging Women is a mystery novel from John Mead. It's a mystery novel with a difference, for it is set against the backdrop of the Chicago of 1886.

Retired Sheriff Jack Stevens makes a grim discovery, the corpses of two young women, one white, one black, hanging from chains in a warehouse.

The position they are in denotes that their killer had thought them guilty of treachery.

Who were the women? Who had determined that they had to die?

Stevens feels duty bound to participate in the investigation, even though he is formally retired. The case is a convoluted one, and it quickly sucks him into a dangerous world of extremists, notorious street gangs battling for supremacy in Chicago and dubious undercover spies and detectives.

With the infamous Haymarket riots and bombings to contend with along with the actions of the city's largest and most deadly street gang, the Dead Hands, can Stevens track the killers down before things really start to get out of hand?

This is an exciting mystery novel and it is clear that John Mead has researched his subject matter very well and has brought the Chicago of the 1880s to life.