Under the Dead Lady's Corset

Judith ‘Jude” Avery, Chicago M.E. is suffering an irrational fear of a haunting voice in her head—calling out her name. She senses it is a harbinger of something or someone wicked coming her way. Work alone fends off this fear, so when her fellow M.E., Dr. Sybil Shanley calls about some human remains of a ‘bizarre nature’ that have been unearthed in a most unusual place, Jude jumps at the chance to rush to the extraordinary victim in her weird setting: the petite woman, still in her corset, was discovered by workmen taking down a brick wall in a tunnel beneath City Hall. Here, where the underground El train passes within feet, dropping off commuters and tourists to downtown Chicago, the discovery has the mayor and other city officials screaming for answers, along with a demand for a quick clean up and shut down of the crime scene, as it is not good for ‘business.’

Then it happens again. Another victim from a previous era in the city’s history when the tunnels were first built. This time a male victim. A coincidence not.

All the while, Jude feels she’s being stalked as the eerie voice calling her name won’t stop. Is it all in her head? Is she losing her mind? She must ignore it, to focus on the case at hand and the manner of death—buried alive within a coffin of bricks. This awful method of murder reminds Jude of stories from Edgar Allan Poe, as the modus operandi of the killer resembles that found in several of Poe’s stories.

This takes Jude to the University of Chicago. There to see a Poe scholar who might offer some insights into a killer long dead himself, a killer from a so-called gentler time. Might the killer be a fan of Poe’s obsessive fear of being buried alive in just such a manner? Her visit to the aged professor reveals far more than she’d wished to learn, but it also ends with Judith being injured and another murder—this one on campus. This era’s Poe killer.

Another killing in time, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Only this time, it’s now, not then.




Genre: Mystery