Published to great acclaim, Death in Lacquer Red was the first novel in Jeanne M. Dams's historical mystery series featuring Hilda Johansson, a young Swedish woman working in the South Bend, Indiana home of the prominent Studebaker family. Against the backdrop of the ever-changing year 1900, Hilda finds herself facing not only the problems of an immigrant but also religious conflict, and international unrest, not to mention the discovery of the body of a young woman apparently murdered on the Studebaker's estate. She uses her skills and intelligence to investigate the crime, even though she's been told that it isn't her place to do so. Hilda tries to keep her nose out of the murder, but is it possible that she's the only one who can see what others refuse to? Vividly recreating the look and feel of the period, Jeanne Dams proves she's as adept at homegrown mysteries as she is with the British scene she explores in her award-winning Dorothy Martin series.