Books by Kitty Burns Florey

Amity Street continues the story that began in New Haven in 1856, chronicled in The Writing Master. It is now the year 1892. Anna Felice, a wealthy former opera star, travels from Rome, Italy, to America-Manhattan, New Haven, finally Amherst, Massachusetts-in search of the truth about her family history. In Amherst, she encounters George Mullen, who holds the key to her past; Hazel Cooper, the writing master's daughter, who is trying to chart the precarious course of her future; and Hazel's cousin, the eccentric, enigmatic Davey Chillick, whose placid existence is about to take a startling turn. And much to Anna's surprise, as she learns the shocking facts about her background, she begins to fall in love with a little country town and the people in it. The scope of the novel includes the social and political upheavals of the 1890s-among them the suffrage movement, the Rational Dress Society, and the conventions of courtship. It also encompasses the taming of a hawk, the right way to train a voice, the making of rhubarb wine, and-most of all-the many ways to define what we call home. Reflecting the author's affection for Victorian novels, New England history, and the towns and landscapes of Western Massachusetts, Amity Street is a thoughtful and compelling examination of a memorable cast of characters and the changing world in which they struggle to live their tumultuous lives.

The Writing Master, a work of historical fiction set in 1856 in New Haven, Connecticut, is about Charles Cooper, a penman-teacher of handwriting-who is attempting to come to terms with his tragic past, and Lily Prescott, an unconventional woman with her own troubled story. When a brutal murder takes place just outside the city, Charles becomes involved in its solution.