Deadly by Julie Chibbaro [Character Feature!]

Deadly by Julie Chibbaro

About the Book: 

A mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever is sweeping New York. 

If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for a young lady. But Prudence isn’t like the other girls. She is fascinated by how the human body works and why it fails. 
 

With a stroke of luck, she lands a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history. Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery?

Character Feature: Mary

Everyone wants me dead.  At least that’s how it feels.  They say I killed people with the things inside my body, but I don’t know what they’re talking about.  Men come to the door with tubes in their hands, wanting samples from me.  Well, I’m not gonna give.  I’m not gonna let them turn me into just another ‘dirty Irish,’ even if I am from Ireland.  They’re always lookin’ for an excuse to drag us down, sayin’ immigrants carry diseases; well, it’s just not true and I’m not letting that man from the Department of Health, that man with his pretty little girl helper, take me in.

I see the way that girl looks at me, when they come to my door. Embarrassed.  But with greedy eyes that seem to see through me.  She believes it too.  She thinks there’s something that grows inside me, that I spread in my cooking.  Girls like that are trouble, and I plan to stay away from her and her mister.

One thing stays with me, what that man said, “Isn’t it true that the typhoid fever seems to follow you, house to house, all across town, no matter who you cook for?” 

It’s coincidence.  Nothing more.

Check out Deadly on Amazon!