Austin, Texas, 1885. Manhattan, 1906. Twenty-year-old ghosts haunt Will Porter, a.k.a. famous writer O. Henry, who may have changed names and cities but hasn't outrun the memory of a series of murders that cast a chilling shadow over a sunny and bustling town. In A Twist at the End, Steven Saylor, author of the Roma Sub Rosa mystery series (Rubicon, The House of the Vestals, A Murder on the Appian Way, The Venus Throw), riffs on reality: brutal and sadistic, the "Servant Girl Annihilator" killed seven Austin women in 1885, but the murders were never solved. Saylor weaves together murder mystery and love story, historical exploration and fictional creation, combining careful research with artistic license to hazard a potential solution to the now-obscure mystery.

Will is summoned back to Austin by a mysterious stranger bearing a letter whose author claims to have discovered the perpetrator of the hideous crimes; Saylor cleverly frames the story as a series of flashbacks during Will's trip to Texas. The sense of the train moving both forward, west toward Austin, and backward, deep into the past, accelerates the story itself, creating a foreboding sense of portent. Will himself is an engaging protagonist: "He considered himself to be fairly well-rounded, for a self-educated fellow. He could throw a lariat, quote from Idylls of the King, and grow an exceedingly fine moustache. Despite this résumé, once in Austin he had encountered some difficulties in earning a livelihood." His youth and naiveté are compelling counterpoints to the gritty boisterousness of the capital city, which Saylor evokes with careful precision.

Saylor has a light touch with historical irony. All too often, writers wrestle unsuccessfully with the temptation to have their characters make claims that we know, with all the wisdom of hindsight, will be disproved. The trick is to do this without making readers feel they've been poked sharply in the ribs (Do you get it? Do you get it?), and Saylor exhibits the commendable talent of grounding his characters' thoughts and observations in their historical context; they never seem forced or sly.

Unfortunately, the urge toward verisimilitude carries its own risks. Too often, Saylor will weave an item of historical record into his narrative--the so-called Female Clerks bill, for example--then seem oddly compelled to dispose of it; he brusquely states its actual outcome and drops it forevermore. The reader has the impression of a file drawer sliding shut (perhaps the one labeled "Historical Atmosphere"). Such moments, though they testify to Saylor's familiarity with Texas history, rupture the flow of the narrative.

The opening of the novel is so successful--with its O. Henry-esque twist that leaves readers ruefully shaking their heads, realizing too late the author's trickery--that one expects great things from the conclusion. Sadly, Saylor falls short of his own inspiration; the dénouement may be logical, but it certainly is neither startling nor ironic, and what, after all, is an O. Henry story without irony? --Kelly Flynn


From Publishers Weekly
Based on the scandal-ridden life of short story master O. Henry and a string of gruesome murders committed in 1885 Austin, Tex., this captivating historical romance noir should be heralded as a breakout for the seasoned author of Rubicon (one of seven mysteries in his popular Roma Sub Rosa series). The intricately structured narrative opens in New York in 1906, when William Sydney Porter, now in his mid-40s and enjoying fame under the nom de plume O. Henry, is being blackmailed by the wife of a wealthy Wall Street broker who threatens to expose his secret past: the writer once served hard time as a convicted embezzler. Porter also encounters a Dr. Kringel, who bears a letter and a train ticket from the celebrated physician, Dr. Edmund Montgomery, and his wife, noted sculptress Elisabet Ney, inviting Porter to return to their plantation near Austin to learn the truth about a 20-year-old series of unsolved murders. Deftly shifting back and forth between 1906 and 1885, the novel describes Porter's life as a likable 25-year-old free spirit who--working odd jobs and hanging out with Dave Shoemaker, a young crime reporter on the Austin Statesman--gets caught up in an unsatisfactory affair with a young married woman. Porter then recalls his unwitting connection to a series of brutal axe murders of seven young women who were sexually ravaged after their deaths. A hard look at racial bigotry and politico-economic deceit in post-Civil War Texas, this well-researched, capably written novel functions not only as cracking good historical entertainment, but also as an effective morality play. Agent, Alan Nevins. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Liam Callanan
It's all fascinating and provocative...


From Kirkus Reviews
And now for something completely American from the author of the highly successful tales of Roman sleuth Gordianus the Finder (Rubicon, 1999, etc.): a ponderous tale based on a real-life Texas murder case. In 1906, New York author O. Henry, n William Sydney Porter, is one of the best-known writers in the world. But hes being blackmailed over a secret more than 20 years olda secret going back even further than his embezzlement conviction in Austin. When a mysterious old man brings him a letter promising to identify the killer of a number of young women back in 1884 and 1885, the author agrees to accompany the emissary on a trip to Texas. Along the way, a series of long flashbacks recount the story of the Servant Girl Annihilators, as Will Porter himself had whimsically dubbed whoever killed the women beginning with mulatto housekeeper Mollie Smith. Interwoven with the story of these monstrous brutalities are several other strands: the halfhearted attempts by incompetent and corrupt authorities to stem what initially looks like a tide of sexual violence directed exclusively at women of color; the fate of the Female Clerks Bill, which provoked brief but lively discussion about the rights of women to enter the workplace; and the tale of Wills hopeless infatuation with Eula Phillips, unhappily but incontrovertibly married to a well-born drunk. Saylor is so generous in presenting every detail of these (mostly factual) subplots that few of his characters get much chance to shine; even Will himself is upstaged by the miscreants who can be most broadly drawn. Worse, the account, despite the promise of its title, keeps few surprises in reserve. A conscientious historical reconstruction that still packs less punch than any number of its literary heros own ten-page anecdotes. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Fascinating and provacative."--The New York Times Book Review



Review
"Fascinating and provacative."--The New York Times Book Review



Book Description
Austin, Texas, in 1885 is a place of dust and dreams, quick riches, and wild desires. But "the Servant girl Annihilators" are also making it a city of fear. The first victim, a mulatto housekeeper, is torn from her bed and murdered. Six more women will die, including pretty blond Eula Phillips, who is bank clerk's Will Porter's lover. Over a decade later, living in New York as O. Henry, Will cannot escape his memories--or a blackmailer's merciless demands. Then a mysterious letter invites him back to Texas to follow the dark path of a sadistic killer and make a stunning discover as he is forced to confront the demons of his own tormented mind...



About the Author
STEVEN SAYLOR is the author of the internationally popular Roma Sub Rosa mysteries, set in ancient Rome. A Texas native, he now divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Will Porter, a.k.a. O. Henry, may have changed his name and address, but he can't outrun the memory of a serial killer whose shadow won't fade.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In an artful blending of history, literature, and vivid imagination, author Steven Saylor has crafted a novel that, much as Caleb Carr's bestselling The Alienist, combines real characters and true crime into a story that is an engrossing work of fiction.

The city of Austin, Texas, "is fearfully dull," wrote young Will Porter to a friend in the spring of 1885, "except for the frequent raids of the Servant Girl Annihilators, who make things lively in the dead of night."

Years later, Will Porter would become famous as O. Henry, the toast of New York and the most celebrated writer in America. The long-ago Texas killings, which he dubbed the work of the Servant Girl Annihilators -- perhaps the first recorded serial murders in America -- would remain unsolved. But the appearance of a merciless blackmailer and a mysterious stranger would draw Porter back into the past, and back to Texas, to confront the stunning solution to those murders -- and the secrets of his own soul.

When he was a young man in Austin in that spring of 1885, Porter fell in love. Her name was Eula Phillips. She was beautiful. She was married to someone else. And she was doomed to be a victim of the Servant Girl Annihilators.

The first victims were young Black women who worked in the households of Austin's most prominent citizens. The crimes were unspeakable. The authorities were baffled. The murders continued, month after month, until suddenly, shockingly, the pattern changed. On a bloody Christmas Eve, two women -- neither of them Black and neither of them servants -- were horribly murdered, seemingly by the same vicious stalker. One of them was Eula Phillips. Her death was to be a defining event in the life of the young man who would one day become O. Henry. The trial that resulted -- uncovering one explosive scandal after another -- would tear the city of Austin apart.

The capitol of Texas was a city in uneasy transition. Only a few years earlier, outlaw gangs and Comanche Indians had roamed the hills where now stood the homes of cattle barons and university professors. The animosities of the Civil War still lingered, and the struggle of Blacks for equality was just beginning. By day, politicians in the state legislature debated equal rights for women; by night, those same politicians mingled with the high-class prostitutes of Guy Town, the city's notorious vice district. Southern traditions of manners and decorum concealed ugly secrets, all of which would be revealed before the saga of the Servant Girl Annihilators reached its end.

Against this remarkably rich background, Steven Saylor, author of the acclaimed Roma Sub Rosa series, has crafted a novel that melds fact with fiction, employing characters both real and imagined. The crimes and trials described in A Twist at the End actually happened. In real life, no satisfactory resolution was reached. But in the course of investigating the crimes, Saylor has come up with his own startling conclusion to a riveting, century-old mystery.

The result is a masterful novel of intrigue and murder, yet at the same time a romance of time and place, with a colorful cast of memorable characters brought vividly to life. It's a true tale of Texas, grand in both setting and scope.

FROM THE CRITICS

Liam Callanan - The New York Times Book Review