Forms of Things Unknown by Elizabeth Ireland

Oh, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!

She was a vixen when she went to school.

And though she be but little, she is fierce.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Act III, Scene 2

Recently returned to Chicago after a successful tour of Hamlet, Lillian Nolan is awakened in the dead of night by a strange voice. She is shocked to learn that well known and admired actress, Louise Hawthorne, has fallen to her death from the sixth floor of the Tremont House. Was it an accident? Did she jump or was she pushed? Louise’s former lover, and the main suspect, pleads with Lillian to uncover the truth and clear his name. 

In the process of learning to trust her intuitive abilities, Lillian attempts to find balance between relying upon her gift and uncovering the truth in her own way. But the menace of death pursues her and soon her own life is at risk. When she finds herself in a trap from which she cannot escape, her only hope of survival is to call upon the metaphysical world.

Forms of Things Unknown is based on an actual event which occurred in June of 1876 in Chicago. It is the third standalone book in the Backstage Mystery Series. THE BACKSTAGE MYSTERY SERIES Tagline:Life upon the wicked stage can be deadly. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, the Backstage Mystery Series stars Lillian Nolan, anunconventional member of Chicago’s upper class who dreams of a career of fortune and fame inthe theater. Talented and ambitious, she possesses a hidden skill which she is extremely reluctant to use—the ability to communicate with those who have died and now live in the world of “TheBeyond.”

 The series chronicles her adventures in which she continually becomes enmeshed in solving mysteries which often require her accessing the realm of the paranormal. Filled with an incredible cast of characters—factual, fictional, and sometimes non-physical—who either help or hinder her quest for the truth, the stories take place during a period considered to be the golden age of both acting and spiritualism in America.

JENA’S REVIEW

Forms of Things Unknown by Elizabeth Ireland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had the best time with this book, a historical fiction/fantasy book that made the history of the times so fresh and real; readers, you are there with our heroine, actress Lillian Nolan. We learn about two intense weeks in Lillian’s life as told by the 96-year-old Lillian, who is writing her memoirs. From a vantage point of about 70 years, Lillian writes with a confident, clear, factual style.

What was going on in the summer of 1876, besides the harrowing events that Lillian relates? The country was celebrating the nation’s Centennial. Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his telephone. (Lillian’s family was split on whether this was a crazy or interesting invention.) Mark Twain and his “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was popular, as was the new sport of baseball- already America’s favorite pastime. Chicago, where the story takes place has rebuilt after the Great Fire. Custer made his last stand at Little Big Horn and Lillian almost made her last stand as her memoirs clinically detail.

Once again, Lillian is called on to solve a mysterious death. This time, it involves a popular actress. Did the actress commit suicide or accidentally fall from her hotel window in downtown Chicago? When danger comes to Lillian, thankfully she has friends to help her, plus a guide from the spirit world, a 16th century gentleman.

The author has populated this book, the third in the series, with plenty of interesting characters and fascinating scenes of the theater and life in Chicago. Each chapter stars with a quote by Shakespeare, which adds to the mystery clues. This book was readable and entertaining as a stand-alone. Enjoy Lillian’s world!

Thanks to the author and Rachel’s Random Resources for a digital review copy. This is my honest review.

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Author Bio – Elizabeth Ireland discovered her passion for theater early. After receivingundergraduate and graduate degrees in Theater, she accepted a teachingposition in a vibrant performing arts department at a college in northernIllinois. For ten years, she taught, directed and ran front-of-houseoperations. American Theater History—particularly that of the 19thcentury—has always been of particular interest to her.She has been a quarter-finalist and a semi-finalist for the Don and GeeNicholl Fellowshipin screenwriting sponsored by the Academy of MotionPicture Arts and Sciences. Two of her screenplays have been optioned, butremain unproduced. Her nonfiction work, Women of Vision: OrdinaryWomen, Extraordinary Lives, was published in 2008. Her work has alsobeen published in a collection of paranormal short stories, Paramourtal:Tales of Undying Love and Loving the Undead. She lives in metro Atlantawith her ever-patient husband, and two quirky dachshunds.

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