Louisa and the Country Bachelor

After a bleak winter in Boston investigating the murder of a close friend, I was badly in need of wholesome air and sunshine. To that end, my family — mother Abba, father Bronson, and my sisters, Lizzie, May, and Anna, and I — visited our cousins in Walpole, New Hampshire. But as soon as we arrived in the peaceful hamlet, we were confronted with tragedy: the death of Ernst Nooteboom, who purportedly fell into a ravine while hiking.

While his sister pointed her finger at the grocery store owner who coveted Ernst's land, I found no lack of other suspects with sinister motives. Despairing of the death of such a young man, I resolved to bring Ernst's murderer to justice.

Louisa May Alcott