Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective

The Adventures of New England's Most Excellent Girl Detective

“The Agitated Elocutionist” a new story published in The Hatchet

May 23rd, 2011

“The Agitated Elocutionist,” a new Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective mystery, has been published in the latsst issue of The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies. 

The Hatchet Spring 2011 Cover
The Hatchet Spring 2011 Cover

“The Agitated Eloutionist” is the first Girl Detective Mystery to be published since PearTree Press presented the collection “Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective,” in April of 2010 and promises to be just as  original and amusing.  Lizzie Borden, the Girl Detective of Fall River, is joined by her affluent cousin Sarah Borden for a casual afternoon together during which they shop for clothing, eat lunch, interview crime suspects, disrupt the entire Fall River police department, destroy the career of a famed speech therapist, and send a few jewel thieves to jail.   Sarah is a bit rattled by it all, but to Lizzie, it’s all in a day’s unpaid work.

The new story has the honor of being published in a special edition of The Hatchet which features an interview with Michael Martins and Dennis Binette, the authors of  Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.  This new book, soon to be published, promises to be a landmark in Lizzie Borden Studies, a major original work by the Fall River Historical Society.  Many rumors conflict on what it contains, but if just a few of those rumors are true, this book will change the way we look at the historical Lizzie Borden and reveal a history that has been concealed for over a hundred years. 

The new issue of The Hatchet also features writings by Michael Brimbau, Stefani Koorey, David Marshall James, Kat Koorey, Denise Noe and others.  Order your copy now from http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetOnline/.

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Richard Behrens to appear in Ric Rebelo’s Lizbeth on PBS

September 13th, 2010

Ric Rebelo, a Fall River-based documentary filmmaker, has interviewed Richard Behrens for his new film Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare. He has generously seen fit to include Richard in the film. The interview was conducted in early August at the Lizzie Borden B&B in Fall River. The documentary will air on New England PBS in late October.  Pleasse enjoy this preview.

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August 3rd Reading at the Fall River Library

August 4th, 2010

A very special thanks to all who attended the reading at the Fall River Library on August 3rd, and to all who purchased the book on August 4th at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast / Museum.  I hope you enjoyed the reenactment, and I hope you enjoy reading the book.  Here’s a video of the Library reading for those who couldn’t attend, or those who would like to see it again.  It includes an introduction by Stefani Koorey, the book’s editor and publisher, an appearance by the Pear Essential Players and Donald Woods, the owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast.

Richard Behrens Reads from Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective from MondoLizzie on Vimeo.

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August 3 & 4: Fall River Reading and Signing

July 27th, 2010

Author Richard Behrens is coming to Fall River to read from Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective and sign copies of the book on the annniversay of the 1892 murders.

The Pear Essential Players will be at Richard's reading and signing August 3 and 4th in Fall River

 Tuesday, August 3rd, 6:30-7:30pm

BOOK READING FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Author Richard Behrens will be presenting a reading from his latest book Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective 

PLUS: a visit from The Pear Essential Players the reenactment group from the Lizzie Borden B&B

 Fall River Public Library
104 North Main Street,
Fall River, MA
Main meeting room, basement
Light refreshments will be served

Wednesday, August 4rd, 10:30am-4:00pm

BOOK READING FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Author Richard Behrens will be singing his latest book Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective at the anniversary re-enactions at 92 Second Street, Fall River. Come get your Lizzie book signed at the actual Borden house and meet your favorite historical characters brought to life by the Pear Essential Players.

Visit Pear Essential Productions for more details.

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Praise for Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective

July 19th, 2010

“Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective, is clever and appealing. Every story brings the reader to the streets and characters of Fall River as if you were there with them and of course Lizzie Borden. Congratulations to Richard Behrens for his Victorian creativity and imagination.”

Len Rebello, Author of Lizzie Borden: Past & Present

“In Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective Richard Behrens skillfully captures the essence of historic Fall River, bringing the city to life through the adventures of the youthful, intrepid sleuth, Lizzie Borden. The fictional Lizzie is an absolutely delightful character; she is fearlessly cunning, charismatic, and thoroughly enchanting! A must read for all those intrigued by Fall River history, mystery and, of course, Lizzie Borden.”

Michael Martins, Curator of the Fall River History Society / Co-Author of Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River

“This is a fun read and you’ll see Lizzie in a whole new light. It is well written and has lots of  unique historical details that make it feel very rich and authentic.”

Jill Dalton, writer/performer LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE

“This is Lizzie Borden as you never imagined her; lively, intrepid and clever as a budding detective on the hunt!  The stories are a magic carpet ride to another time – old Fall River in all its glory.  The settings, the clothing, the language all showcase a young Lizzie Borden against a background of mystery and intrigue with some twists and turns along the way.  Move over Nancy Drew, and make room for Miss Lizzie, Girl Detective- so much fun, it’s nearly criminal! “

Shelley Dziedzic, Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

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Amazon Review Call

June 24th, 2010

To those of you who have read Richard Behrens’ book Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective, we invite you to review it on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Lizzie-Borden-Detective-Richard-Behrens/dp/0981904319/

There is a new service on Amazon that looks for reviews to select a book to be sold on their site in other formats:

“AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate. Amazon will then partner with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. Browse our books below, and check out AmazonEncore titles available on Kindle.”

If you read the book and loved it, please visit Amazon.com and offer up your opinions. It might help Richard get chosen for this honor!

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Fall River Historical Society Reading

June 7th, 2010

Richard Behrens read from his novel “Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective” at the Fall River Historical Society on June 5, 2010.   Richard is of the opinion that if you lock yourself into a basement bunker with no windows and no lights, whatever you do there will eventually wind up on YouTube.  So enjoy these excerpts from the book as performed before an audience of Fall River residents, Lizzie fans and the curators of the Fall River Historical Society.  The video comes to us courtesy of Mondo Lizzie Borden.

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Fall River Reading and Herald Article

June 3rd, 2010

The Fall River Historical Society is hosting a reading and book signing by author Richard Behrens on June 5, 2010 from noon to 2:30 p.m. The reading will be at 1 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

The Fall River Historical Society is an important resource for anyone interested in Lizzie Borden, Fall River History, or Victorian American houses, since they are located in a granite mansion built in 1843 on Rock Street on the Hill in Fall River.  They also host a Lizzie Borden exhibit which includes the infamous handle-less hatchet that may have been murder weapon and other Lizzie related artifacts. The FRHS is also scheduled to publish Parallel Lives, a major non-fiction study of Lizzie Borden and Fall River, sometime in the next few months. This upcoming book is of particular interest to us because it promises to reveal new material about Lizzie Borden’s life, including the years covered by the Girl Detective stories. You can visit the Historical Society at www.lizzieborden.org for more information.

The Fall River Herald has just graciously published a wonderful article by Deb Allard about Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective on June 3. Thanks Deb!

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Doctor Seabury Bowen Revealed

May 23rd, 2010

A recent meeting of the Mutton Eaters, the Fall River Chapter of the Second Street Irregulars, focused on the life of Dr. Seabury W. Bowen of Fall River.  The good doctor was a crucial player in the events of August 4, 1892.  No account of the murders and its aftermath can trivialize his role.  A fictional Dr. Bowen  makes a prominent appearance in the short story “The Melancholy Scion,” the fifth installment of Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective.  What is particularly relevant about the Mutton Eaters’ workshop on Dr. Bowen was the presentation by Lorraine Gregoire of a photograph of the young Dr. Bowen.  In this photograph, he seems as young as he would appear in the short story which takes place in 1877.   You can see the photograph and read much information about Dr. Bowen’s life at Shelley Dziedzic’s blog Lizzie Borden: Warps & Wefts.

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Lizzie Borden’s River

May 6th, 2010

Fall River is named after the Quequechan (pronounced by Fall Riverites Quick-a-shan) which is the word in the Wampanoag tongue for Falling River.  While the city has not been called Fall River continuously since the land’s purchase from the Wampanoag (it has also been dubbed, at various times, Freetown and Troy), the river itself, which originates at two large inland ponds and then courses westward into Mount Hope Bay, has been the single most significant natural resource in the city’s history.  The Quequechan provided water power to the mills before the days of steam engines and helped put the city into history as a significant center of American textile production.    Other textile centers like Lowell, MA and Manchester, NH were financed by Boston conglomerates, but the mills of Fall River were all developed by local families like the Bordens who, in the early days of the 19th century, owned a lot of land around the Quequechan.

The river, one of great beauty and power, has sadly became covered up by the mills, some of which literally straddled the width of the waters.  Even today, the river runs underneath a highway.  Like the Wampanoag themselves, it is a ghost of the city’s past and an echo of its conscience.  We have no evidence that Lizzie Borden thought much about it, although she must have known of its existence.

The opening chapter of “The Forlorn Maggie” entitled “Hidden Waters” describes the river as being like a wandering ghost under the industrial streets.  The people enjoying themselves in the sunlight of Main Street, shopping and gossiping, are not thinking about the mills or the hidden waterway that courses under their feet.  All that energy, all that wealth, moving silent, deep, and unobserved.

This video shows several images of the river from various stages of Fall River history.

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Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective by Richard Behrens

April 19th, 2010

Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective by Richard Behrens was published by Pear Tree Press on April 16th, 2010.

Purchase your copy today

Authored by Richard Behrens
Designed by Stefani Koorey
Illustrated by Marc Reed
Associate editor Kat Koorey
Consultant editor Shelley Dziedzic

Introducing Miss Lizzie Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts, a most excellent girl detective and the most remarkable young woman ever to take on the criminal underworld in late 19th century New England.

Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Lizzie Borden pursued a career as a private consulting detective and wrestled masterfully with a crooked spiritualist, a corrupt and murderous textile tycoon, a secret society of anarchist assassins, rowdy and deadly sporting boys, a crazed and vengeful mutineer, an industrial saboteur, and a dangerously unhinged math professor—none of whom are ever exactly what they seem to be.

In these five early tales of mystery and adventure, Lizzie Borden is joined by her stubborn and stingy father Andrew; her jealous and weak-chinned sister Emma; her trusted companion Homer Thesinger the Boy Inventor; and the melancholy French scion Andre De Camp. Together, they explore Fall River’s dark side through a landscape that is industrial, Victorian, and distinctly American.

You have met Lizzie Borden before! But never like this!

Includes the following stories:

  • The Forlorn Maggie
  • The Purloined Curio
  • The Exhausted Amanuensis
  • The Traumatized Metallurgist
  • The Melancholy Scion

About the author

Richard Behrens is a contributor to The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies and a founding editor of The Trenton Review. His writings on literature and science fiction have been published in The Journal of Advancing Technology and on TheModernWord.com. A native New Yorker, now living in New England, Richard is working on several more Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective mysteries.

Publication Date:Apr 16 2010
ISBN/EAN13: 0981904319 / 9780981904313
Page Count: 208
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Categories: Fiction / Short Stories
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