The Gray Chamber by Grace Hitchcock

Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime

Will Edyth prove her sanity before it is too late?

On Blackwell Island, New York, a hospital was built to keep its patients from ever leaving.

With her late father’s fortune under her uncle’s care until her twenty-fifth birthday in the year 1887, Edyth Foster does not feel pressured to marry or to bow to society’s demands. She freely indulges in eccentric hobbies like fencing and riding her velocipede in her cycling costume about the city for all to see. Finding a loophole in the will, though, her uncle whisks Edyth off to the women’s lunatic asylum just weeks before her birthday. Do any of Edyth’s friends care that she disappeared?

At the asylum she meets another inmate, who upon discovering Edyth’s plight, confesses that she is Nellie Bly, an undercover journalist for The World. Will either woman find a way to leave the terrifying island and reclaim her true self?

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About The Author

Grace Hitchcock is the author of The White City and The Gray Chamber from Barbour Publishing. She has written multiple novellas in The Second Chance Brides, The Southern Belle Brides, and the Thimbles and Threads collections with Barbour Publishing. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in History. Grace lives in southern Louisiana with her husband, Dakota, and son. Visit Grace online at GraceHitchcock.com.


My Review

This was a great read, but it did give me nightmares, and mainly because it is based on fact. This horrible place really existed, and was used to actually destroy people, sick and sad.
There are smiles to be found when we follow our daring Ms. Edyth as she goes about NY City, doing what we take for granted, but back in the late 1880’s was considered unladylike.
Then we have her Uncle, yes, he is her guardian, at least for a few more weeks, she will then be 25, and able to assume control over her fortune. She also seems to finally gotten the attention of the man she loves, but can it ever be?
What we have here, plain and simple greed, and how they go about stealing the money, is just plain horrible.
Make sure you read the author’s notes at the end of this book, sad but true!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Barbour. and was not required to give a positive review.