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WORK TITLE: A Deadly Affection
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.cuyleroverholt.com/
CITY:
STATE: CT
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.thebentagency.com/author.php?id=138&name=Cuyler_Overholt
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:University of Virginia School of Law.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Previously worked as a freelance writer and as a a litigation associate.
AVOCATIONS:Biking, yoga, and watching movies.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Cuyler Overholt is a writer and former litigation associate. Her novel writing career began later in life, after she spent years in law and running a freelance writing business. After graduating from the University of Virginia Law School, Overholt began working as a litigation associate. She worked for four years in law, after which she left litigation work to start her own freelance writing business. Overholt spent the next ten years developing her freelance business, working primarily for a New York-based public relations firm. During this time Overholt started a family, and her interest in creative writing began to develop. In between writing freelance and raising her young children, Overholt began writing what would become her first published novel. She explains that she found her calling in novel writing.
Other than writing, Overholt enjoys biking, yoga, watching movies, and discussing human motivation and behavior with her husband, a psychologist. Overholt and her husband live in northwestern Connecticut.
A Deadly Affection is Overholt’s first novel and the first book in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford historical mystery series. The book introduces our protagonist, Genevieve, as a smart and daring, yet self-doubting, doctor. The story takes place in New York in 1907, a time when a female pursuing a career in medicine was a rarity. It was also a time in which cultural and medical interest in controversial psychology practices were viewed as the answer to psychiatric disorders.
The book takes place during what was known as the Progressive Era. This period lasted between the 1890s up until World War II and was characterized by devotion to science. It was a time of great medical progress, when the benefits of science were becoming more and more reliable. It was also a time of action and dependence on individual initiative. In A Deadly Affection, the attitudes of the time are seen in the reliance on science and medicine presented throughout the book, as well as the consistent independence and drive that Genevieve displays.
Genevieve is the founder of a psychotherapy support group for women who have suffered from loss or trauma. On top of the pushback Genevieve receives for pursuing a traditionally male dominated career, she is criticized for her specific career choices within the medical field. In the novel her work is viewed by some, including her father, as not ‘real’ medicine.
The story takes off as Genevieve becomes unexpectedly entangled in a murder mystery. Eliza Miner, one of the attendees of the psychotherapy support group, confides in Genevieve of her lingering regret from giving up a child she had as a teenager. Genevieve encourages Eliza to take action by finding and confronting the doctor who took away her baby. Eliza does so, and the following day the body of the doctor is found, having been brutally murdered. Further, Eliza Miner is found standing above the body. Eliza becomes the main suspect, but Genevieve is certain Eliza did not commit the murder. The story becomes complicated in that if Eliza is guilty, Genevieve could be viewed as being partially responsible for the murder, as she encouraged Eliza to confront the doctor. While already considered questionable by many due to her nontraditional career choice, Genevieve is met with additional suspicion at her insistence that Eliza is not guilty. Finding little peer support, Genevieve begins her own investigation into the doctor’s past, and the story dives into the doctor’s and Genevieve’s own personal histories.
Overholt portrays Genevieve as a complicated, multilayered character. While at times insecure and self-doubting, Genevieve’s gumption mirrors the attitude of the Progressive Era. Yet while Genevieve models the basic philosophies of the time, Overholt gives the character unique depth. Julia Ann Charpentier in Clarion Reviews explained: “The protagonist resorts to more than medical science to defend her patient, giving the story a commercial edge it would have lacked in a classic literary work with little action.”
A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote: “Overholt makes fine use of early psychology in this richly detailed whodonit.” As Genevieve moves further into her personal investigation, characters from her past become entangled in the story, complicating the plot and creating more possible conclusions. We meet Simon Shaw, a former romantic interest of Genevieve’s, now a Tammany politician, who grants the reader an understanding of Genevieve’s younger self.
Charpentier described Overholt’s debut novel as “backed by meticulous research and presented with acute attention to detail,” that “entertains as well as educates.” The novel provides a murder mystery as well as a historical lesson on the culture, attitudes, and practices of the time. Charpentier states, “even a seasoned reader of murder mysteries will be surprised at the number of false conclusions one can reach when examining a crime as complicated as the one in Overholt’s debut novel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Clarion Reviews January 30, 2012, Julia Ann Charpentier, review of A Deadly Affection.
Publishers Weekly July 25, 2016, review of A Deadly Affection, p. 50.
ONLINE
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com (January 30, 2012), Julia Ann Charpentier, review of A Deadly Affection.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org (April 10, 2017), review of A Deadly Affection.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com (December 23, 2011), review of A Deadly Affection.*
About the Author
After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, Cuyler Overholt practiced as a litigation associate for four years before leaving the law to start up a freelance writing business. Over the next decade she transformed technical jargon into entertaining prose for a New York-based public relations firm. She finally found her true calling when she started scribbling a novel during her young sons’ naptimes. A Deadly Affection, her award-winning debut, is the first installment in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford historical mystery series.
Cuyler shares a keen interest in human motivation and behavior with her husband, a psychologist, who is still working on perfecting her. When she isn’t reading or writing she can usually be found on a bike, in the cobra pose, designing her next dream house or enjoying a good movie.
CUYLER OVERHOLT
After graduating from University of Virginia Law School, Cuyler Overholt practiced as a litigation associate for four years before leaving the law to start up a freelance writing business. Over the next decade she transformed technical jargon into entertaining prose for a New York-based public relations firm. She finally found her true calling when she started scribbling a novel during her young sons’ naptimes. A Deadly Affection, her award-winning debut, will be reissued by Sourcebooks in September 2016 as the first installment in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford historical mystery series.
Cuyler shares a keen interest in human motivation and behavior with her husband, a psychologist, who is still working on perfecting her. She feels blessed to live in the beautiful hills of northwestern Connecticut where, when she isn’t reading or writing, she can usually be found on a bike, in the cobra pose, designing her next dream house or enjoying a good movie.
Let’s Take A (Time Travel) Trip To NYC With Cuyler Overholt
Posted On October 10, 2016 «
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book review deadly affection overholt
Fire Up The Time Machine!
It’s time to take a (time travel) trip back in time with Cuyler Overholt, author of A Deadly Affection, a debut novel set in NYC in the early 20th-century. Check out my review!
A Time Travel Trip To 1907 New York
My historical mystery, A Deadly Affection, is set in New York City in the year 1907, during what’s known as the Progressive Era. Although less familiar to readers, perhaps, than the Gilded age that preceded it or the first World War that came after, this was a tremendously vibrant and exciting period in its own right. To better acquaint the readers of Second Run Reviews with its charms, I invite you all to join me on a special time travel tour to New York City in 1907, with a side trip to Washington, D.C.
First, a little background. Lasting from roughly 1890 to the First World War, the Progressive Era was characterized by an almost religious belief in science. This was, after all, a time when life-changing inventions were appearing on practically a daily basis, leading people to think they could conquer just about any challenge that came their way. People of this period also believed in the power of the individual to make a difference. Men and women at the dawn of the twentieth century weren’t content to sit back and wait for the government to fix things; they were out marching on the streets, or writing exposes, or forming investigative committees. President Teddy Roosevelt exemplified the spirit of the day when he said, “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there!” I would submit that this makes the period a particularly refreshing destination for people of our time, faced with such seemingly insurmountable problems as global religious conflict and environmental destruction, which can sometimes make optimism hard to come by.
And now on to the highlights of the tour! Our accommodations in New York City will be on the 8th floor of the luxurious new Plaza Hotel, the view from which, it is claimed, “is better than any from the Alps or Rockies”. After assembling in the glass-domed tea room for some reviving refreshments, we’ll take a double-decker omnibus drive around the city to get our bearings, stopping at a Herald Square nickelodeon to watch the latest Edison moving picture, “Laughing Gas”; touring a Mott Street opium den; and riding an elevator up the Park Row Building, currently the tallest commercial building in the world at twenty-nine stories. The next morning we’ll visit Pennsylvania Station, a Beaux Art masterpiece modelled after the Baths of Caracalla. This gorgeous example of the “City Beautiful” architectural movement was destroyed in 1965 over fierce public opposition—but thanks to time travel, you can once again walk through its storied halls. In the evening, we’ll attend the first-ever Ziegfield Follies review at the Jardin de Paris roof theater, a “mélange of mirth, music and pretty girls” so lavishly entertaining and sexually daring that it will draw eager audiences for another thirty years.
book review deadly affection overholt
How About A Quick Side Trip
The next day we’ll head for Washington on the Royal Blue Line Limited, the finest daylight train in the world. Sit back and relax in mahogany-paneled parlor cars featuring leaded glass windows and royal blue upholstery, perhaps while perusing an illustrated issue of Munsey’s or McClures magazine, where you’ll find whimsical fiction, travel essays, and hard-hitting muckraking exposes. When hungers strikes, stroll with your new early-20th century friends to the luxurious dining car, where you’ll enjoy exquisite cuisine prepared by French-trained chefs.
Our first event in Washington will be a private reception with President Roosevelt, who is keen to hear how his wilderness parks have fared through the generations. During his tenure the president created 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon), 5 national parks, 51 bird reserves and over 100 million acres of National Forest. If any of you have benefited from his foresight, he’d like to hear about it! Also while in Washington, we’ll listen in as representatives of the National American Woman Suffrage Association petition the Senate, unsuccessfully, to give women the vote.
Back In New York
Back in New York, we’ll take the air with a carriage ride in Central Park, where you’ll rub elbows with the cream of society as they make their customary afternoon drive around the park. Sporting types, if they prefer, may attend a New York Giants baseball game and root for the team to repeat its 1905 World Series victory. Weather permitting, we’ll also take a steamboat ride to Coney Island to visit Dreamland, one of the era’s most refined and spectacular–not to mention brightly-lit— amusement parks, which will burn to the ground a few years in the future and never be rebuilt.
For the highlight of the week, tour organizers have secured invitations to a ball being given by Harry and Gertrude Whitney, in the ballroom Harry’s father famously brought over from a Bordeaux chateau to install in the family’s Fifth Avenue abode. Dressed in elegant ball gowns and tailcoats, we’ll drink vintage champagne from a gushing fountain, enjoy a five-course dinner prepared by famous Sherry’s restaurant, and dance into the wee hours to the music of the Nahan Franko orchestra. Although tour organizers can’t make any guarantees, past party favors at Whitney balls have included black pearls hidden in guests’ oysters, and gold trinkets inset with precious stones.
As a special incentive, although the tour would cost over $11,000 in today’s dollars it is currently being offered at the 1907 value of just $399. I hope I’ve whetted your appetites for the first decade of the twentieth century, and for this unique time traveling tour. I look forward to seeing you in 1907!
Join @cuyleroverholt & @2ndRunReviews for a trip back in time! #timetravel #historicalfiction #NYC
CLICK TO TWEET
Special thanks to Sourcebooks for the Advance Reader Copy of A Deadly Affection and for connecting me with Cuyler for this guest post.
A Deadly Affection: A Dr. Genevieve Summerford Mystery
Publishers Weekly. 263.30 (July 25, 2016): p50.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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A Deadly Affection: A Dr. Genevieve Summerford Mystery
Cuyler Overholt. Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-49263736-3
Dr. Genevieve Summerford, the plucky heroine of Overholt's intriguing first novel and series launch set in early 20th-century New York City, begins a psychotherapy group for women suffering from loss despite her father's wishes that she practice "real" medicine. When Eliza Miner stops after the class to talk about how she's still mourning the child she gave up at birth as a teen, Genevieve encourages Eliza to confront the doctor who took her baby. But when the doctor is found dead the following morning--with Eliza standing over him--Genevieve finds that she's the only one who believes Eliza is innocent. Certain that Eliza was incapable of such brutality, Genevieve begins digging into the doctor's adoption schemes in an effort to uncover another possible suspect. Old flame Simon Shaw, now a Tammany politician, lends a helping hand. Overholt makes fine use of early psychology in this richly detailed whodunit populated with believable characters. Agent: Victoria Lowes, Bent Agency. (Sept.)
A Deadly Affection
Julia Ann Charpentier
Clarion Reviews. (Jan. 30, 2012):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 ForeWord
https://www.forewordmagazine.net/clarion/reviews.aspx
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Cuyler Overholt (author); A DEADLY AFFECTION; Copper Bottom Press (Fiction: Mystery) ISBN: 9780984841301
Byline: Julia Ann Charpentier
The turn of the twentieth century ushered in controversial advances in psychiatry that attracted intellectuals with an ardent desire to heal patients through the power of psychotherapy. Set in New York in 1907, A Deadly Affection offers a realistic look at a turbulent period in U.S. history from the perspective of Genevieve Summerford, a gifted doctor with a troubled past, who must clear a patient charged with killing another physician.
In this unfortunate scenario, all evidence points to Eliza Miner, the accused, which makes Summerford herself appear guilty, not only for attempting to prove the woman's innocence, but also for actually causing the bloodthirsty crime. As the investigation progresses, what seems to be a cut-and-dried case turns into an intricate web of deception, shocking to anyone seeking a simple explanation for a deplorable, violent outburst.
Cuyler Overholt's book is set in an era resistant to probing the mind, which is especially problematic for a woman like Summerford who is competing in a male-dominated profession and nurturing an inferiority complex fueled by a former professor: "I imagined I could feel Mayhew's eyes on my back, full of contempt for a woman who'd had the nerve to step outside the bounds of nature to assume a man's job. He had once said, in an anatomy lecture in which I was the only woman present, that the female brain was 'rather too small for great intellect, but just large enough for conceit.' As I stepped out the front door into a world newly fraught with uncertainty, I wondered for the first time if he might be right."
The book deserves high marks for outstanding editing and Overholt's page-turning style, which entertains as well as educates. Backed by meticulous research and presented with acute attention to detail, a novel that could have slipped into the abyss of the ordinary shines like a star in a highly competitive genre. Like a Sherlock Holmes-inspired sleuth, the protagonist resorts to more than medical science to defend her patient, giving the story a commercial edge it would have lacked in a classic literary work with little action.
The author, a former litigation attorney and business writer, employs an element of uncertainty to propel her plot and portrays Summerford as an insecure risk taker: "My previous experience with lying had not prepared me for the job of protecting Eliza. I doubted I'd persuaded the detective that I hadn't returned to the crime scene; indeed, I was afraid that by denying it, I'd only managed to convince him that everything else I'd said was also a lie, including my belief in Eliza's innocence."
Even a seasoned reader of murder mysteries will be surprised at the number of false conclusions one can reach when examining a crime as complicated as the one in Overholt's debut novel. Buried secrets and long-ago mistakes emerge in this absorbing glimpse of the developmental days of psychiatry.
Julia Ann Charpentier
A DEADLY AFFECTION
by Cuyler Overholt
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KIRKUS REVIEW
In Overholt’s historical mystery, a young female doctor in early-20th-century New York must solve a bloody murder for which she feels partially responsible.
In 1905 Dr. Genevieve Summerford finished third in her class at John Hopkins only to have her father disapprove of her decision to run a psychology research class for women with emotional trauma—a concerted effort in an emerging field to help people better their lives and prove that thoughts and feelings can influence body functions and health. Eliza Miner, a woman in Genevieve’s study group, confides that she’d had a baby as a teenager that was taken from her by her doctor. Discussing the incident and options of confronting the doctor regarding the location of the now 20-year-old child, Genevieve’s advice is misconstrued, and the following day the doctor is found brutally murdered—with Eliza standing over him covered in blood. Desperate to prove the innocence of her patient, find the real killer and salve her guilt for the inadvertent part she may have played, Genevieve must overcome a mountain of circumstantial evidence, confront a very powerful and influential family and subvert the stubbornness of the investigating officer who refuses to look any further than Eliza Miner. When Genevieve runs into Simon Shaw, a sordid reminder of her painful past, she realizes that the man who broke her heart may be the only one who can give her hope. Genevieve’s story is compelling, from her difficult childhood that encompasses the travesty of bearing the blame for the death of her younger brother to the tragedy of losing her innocence to a naive teenage indiscretion, with both bearing equal weight of guilt. Though she longs for the acceptance and forgiveness of her father, Genevieve’s unwavering determination to her profession allows her to remain steadfast and true. Replete with formal gowns and annual winter balls, Overholt’s novel successfully captures the feel and tone of 20th-century New York in a deeply pleasing, nostalgically modern way. A solid plot pulls the reader in with little effort, while strong, flowing prose and captivating characters provide the incentive to remain to the very last page. In Dr. Genevieve Summerford, Overholt has beautifully rendered a symbol of strength and perseverance in a time of severe gender bias.
A well-paced, 20th-century whodunit full of dark secrets and fascinating intrigue that easily keeps pace with 21st-century standards.
Pub Date: Jan. 13th, 2012
ISBN: 978-0984841301
Page count: 454pp
Publisher: Copper Bottom
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23rd, 2011
A Deadly Affection
BY CUYLER OVERHOLT
Find & buy on
In the “orderly society” of New York in 1907, when women are not considered competent to become physicians, spinster Genevieve Summerford obtains her doctorate degree and sets up practice in the new field of “scientific psychotherapy.” Just as her father fixes things, she wants to “fix people.” She begins work with a group of women prone to depression and becomes embroiled in a police investigation after her advice leads to a killing. In attempting to prove her patient’s innocence, she has to deal not only with the many prejudices of the day but also with her own unresolved conflicts. For a book filled with murder, madness, and medical mystery, Cuyler Overholt’s A Deadly Affection was a real pleasure to read. Its only drawback: I had to put my life on hold until I’ve finished it. What a satisfying finish … and what a smooth, complex, enlightening, riveting journey – worth every moment. First-time novelist Overholt has done her research, and the historical facts are slipped in so unobtrusively that the flow of the story is never impeded. A Deadly Affection is masterfully crafted, a delightful combination of suspense and romance. I cannot wait for Overholt’s next novel.
A Deadly Affection
BY CUYLER OVERHOLT
Find & buy on
New York City, 1907. Genevieve Summerford, MD, having spurned a position at a prestigious hospital, is about to embark on a research study in the Yorkville tenement district. Her hypothesis: if women with psychosomatic pain can identify the trauma at its root, they can free themselves from it. In her first session, Summerford’s patient Eliza Miner discloses that she was once forced to give up her illegitimate baby. Still grieving eighteen years later, Eliza wants only to know the girl’s whereabouts. Summerford encourages Eliza to face Dr. Hauptfurer, the prominent physician who arranged the adoption, and demand the information.
The next morning, Summerford sees Eliza Miner, dazed and covered in blood, being escorted by police from Hauptfurer’s office. While Detective Sergeant Maloney works to establish that it was Eliza who slit the doctor’s throat, Summerford investigates Hauptfurer’s many shady adoptions, homing in on one of the city’s wealthiest families.
Genevieve Summerford, young and inexperienced, with a tendency to act without thinking, has her own ghosts to exorcize, as do most of the characters in a cast that spans the spectrum of New York society. Author Cuyler Overholt peels back the skin of this hierarchy, deftly revealing the kind of secrets that pervade every societal level and that link the unlikeliest members of each.
Rather than exploit New York’s vast cityscape to evoke atmosphere, Overholt goes intimate in this medical thriller, bringing Summerford and her suspects together in tight spaces—a drawing room, a railroad car, a back bedroom—where conversation becomes conflict and tension boils over into turmoil. A well-researched, entertaining mystery with conclusions you’ll never see coming, A Deadly Affection is an exciting start to what promises to be an addictive mystery series.
A Deadly Affection
Reviewed by Julia Ann Charpentier
January 30, 2012
The turn of the twentieth century ushered in controversial advances in psychiatry that attracted intellectuals with an ardent desire to heal patients through the power of psychotherapy. Set in New York in 1907, A Deadly Affection offers a realistic look at a turbulent period in U.S. history from the perspective of Genevieve Summerford, a gifted doctor with a troubled past, who must clear a patient charged with killing another physician.
In this unfortunate scenario, all evidence points to Eliza Miner, the accused, which makes Summerford herself appear guilty, not only for attempting to prove the woman’s innocence, but also for actually causing the bloodthirsty crime. As the investigation progresses, what seems to be a cut-and-dried case turns into an intricate web of deception, shocking to anyone seeking a simple explanation for a deplorable, violent outburst.
Cuyler Overholt’s book is set in an era resistant to probing the mind, which is especially problematic for a woman like Summerford who is competing in a male-dominated profession and nurturing an inferiority complex fueled by a former professor: “I imagined I could feel Mayhew’s eyes on my back, full of contempt for a woman who’d had the nerve to step outside the bounds of nature to assume a man’s job. He had once said, in an anatomy lecture in which I was the only woman present, that the female brain was ‘rather too small for great intellect, but just large enough for conceit.’ As I stepped out the front door into a world newly fraught with uncertainty, I wondered for the first time if he might be right.”
The book deserves high marks for outstanding editing and Overholt’s page-turning style, which entertains as well as educates. Backed by meticulous research and presented with acute attention to detail, a novel that could have slipped into the abyss of the ordinary shines like a star in a highly competitive genre. Like a Sherlock Holmes-inspired sleuth, the protagonist resorts to more than medical science to defend her patient, giving the story a commercial edge it would have lacked in a classic literary work with little action.
The author, a former litigation attorney and business writer, employs an element of uncertainty to propel her plot and portrays Summerford as an insecure risk taker: “My previous experience with lying had not prepared me for the job of protecting Eliza. I doubted I’d persuaded the detective that I hadn’t returned to the crime scene; indeed, I was afraid that by denying it, I’d only managed to convince him that everything else I’d said was also a lie, including my belief in Eliza’s innocence.”
Even a seasoned reader of murder mysteries will be surprised at the number of false conclusions one can reach when examining a crime as complicated as the one in Overholt’s debut novel. Buried secrets and long-ago mistakes emerge in this absorbing glimpse of the developmental days of psychiatry.
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.