The Black Maria

by Mark Graham

Book Overview

Captured at Gettysburg, imprisoned in Andersonville, Wilton McCleary lost his innocence in the Civil War. But on the streets of Philadelphia he's found a home---as a grizzled city detective facing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380800683
• ISBN13: 9780380800681
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully unique!

For once, here's a book that lived up to its good reviews. Graham's meticulous research, his use of the language (and spelling) of the times, places the reader firmly on site as we travel with detective Willton McCleary through the Centennial Exposition. The rendering of the site's splendors and its neighboring sleaze is so historically accurate and visual that we can almost smell the foods on offer and hear the swish of women's gowns; we watch the pickpockets, see the displays and gaze in wonder at the miracles of the era: the new type-writing machine, the telephone, and every conceivable type of contraption. Woven into the tour of this remarkable venue is a mystery so complex and twisted that the reader is lured into suspecting any number of people of being the savage killer McCleary is attempting to find. McCleary himself is a finely drawn character with secret sorrows and scars on his psyche; he has honor and integrity and is a most sympathetic character. The pacing picks up, gets to a gallop, then races toward an unexpected and oddly satisfying conclusion.The author's note at the end of the book about Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition leaves one feeling (as I believe he hoped) with a sadness for how much of historical value has been lost through neglect or greed, and how important it is to preserve the remaining cultural remnants for future generations.Very highly recommended!

Compelling historical suspense

THE BLACK MARIA is the third in a series about Wilton McCleary, a Civil War veteran employed as a detective in Philadelphia during the 1870's. The first two books are good; this one is outstanding.Like the first two novels, THE BLACK MARIA is populated by fascinating, complex characters and a fast-paced (though occasionally convoluted) mystery. But it is the setting--the World Fair of 1876--that makes this novel so compelling. Mark Graham has recreated this vital slice of American history so extraordinarily well, it's almost like being there in person.Mark Graham is a talented author whose writing skills improve with each book. I look forward to the next addition to this series.

Victorian Noir

Mark Graham is creating a new genre, and the Black Maria is an outstanding example. His complex hero, Wilton McCleary, solves a murder and confronts the darkness of his own soul at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. As in Graham's previous books, The Killing Breed and the Edgar nominated Resurrectionist, the historical detail is impeccable. It's not a shoot-em-up.It requires an attention span, but it's a great read for the intelligent reader, and the story builds toward an absolutely gripping conclusion

The Wizard of the Centennial

In THE BLACK MARIA, the Reader is transported to Philadelphia's celebration of the Centennial. Beneath the bright facade of the gala, a seedy, and to some appealing, underground culture festers in the neighboring Shantyville.Detective Wilton McCleary works at the Centennial: busting buzzers (pickpockets) during the day and giving swells (the well-to-do) guided tours to Shantyville at night. Soon enough, the two worlds brutally collide.Detective McCleary is an Everyman in search of salvation from his past. He endured the horrors of Andersonville and murders on gaslit streets of Philadelphia. He finds temporary solace on a train ride from Philadelphia to Mauch Chunk. This flair of Romantcism was welcomed and is something not recalled from Mark Graham's previous works.THE BLACK MARIA yields the aura of charm and digust simultaneously. A naive idealization of the past is abandoned and replaced with a dignity found only in objectivity. Graham's strength is his apparent knowledge of and fascination with Philadelphia's past.In the end, the Reader is as manipulated as McCleary. Both of whom are under the control of Graham. Graham gives us McCleary, who leads us through the labyrinthine world of old Philadelphia, and by doing so, he conditions us to his will. Mark Graham, at least in this novel, is the wizard behind the Centennial, pulling the chains that make this historical mystery function as a complete, nearly perfect, whole.(Even after three novels, there are still enough questions about McCleary to warrant a fourth. I suspect that hardcover fiction lies in the future.)

Welcome To The Centennial Exposition...

THE BLACK MARIA, is a must-read for fans of the previous McCleary mysteries (THE KILLING BREED and THE RESURRECTIONIST), and quite possibly the best introduction to Mr. Graham's work for those who have not yet entered the gaslight noir world of late 19th Century Philadelphia that McCleary inhabits.THE BLACK MARIA follows McCleary as he exposes the seedy underbelly of the Centennial Expostion in a gripping search to find a savage murderer. As every twist and curve in the investigation leads deeper into the dark past of a rich industrialist family from Mauch Chunk, PA, McCleary learns that the cost of sanity and redemption rise as the value of life falls.As in Mr. Graham's previous work, page-turning suspense drives THE BLACK MARIA, while carefully-researched details of late 19th Century Philadelphia life and times draw readers into McCleary's world. However, Mr. Graham's attention to period detail has never been better, nor more fully-realized, than it is in THE BLACK MARIA. Readers will find themselves so caught-up in the sights, sounds, smells and excitement of the Centennial Exposition, they'll have a hard time believing they didn't just travel back in time when they finally turn the last page of THE BLACK MARIA.-- S.D. Peters