Release Date: April 19, 2022
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-079-4
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-57869-080-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021917274
eBook: 978-1-57869-087-9
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SYNOPSIS

The steward of Willingford Hall was murdered in the Dell on 12 March 1919. I found his body because I’d been thrown by a horse. It’s difficult to say which event was more unlikely.

Willingford Hall stable lad Harry Green is about to make a discovery even more unlikely than a corpse. 

With the estate near bankruptcy and the rise of automobiles fast replacing horse travel, Harry, a young woman passing as a lad, will soon be out of a job. Facing the knowledge she has no skills in the service positions open to women, Harry resolves to discover who murdered the steward, thus becoming a woman who can determine her own future. But as her investigation proceeds, a second murder demonstrates just how dangerous her knowledge is. Soon, no matter where she rides, she finds that somebody is following her.

Part coming-of-age and part cozy mystery, All Men Glad and Wise confronts a time of tremendous social change: the inequities of service jobs, the quandaries of grooms as technology advances, and the patriarchal assumptions that exclude women from both valued work and riding astride. Harry, like horsemanship, and like England, is on the cusp of a world looking forward.

PRAISE

“Set on a classic British estate just after World War I, brimming with local characters and high-bred horses, All Men Glad and Wise will have you turning pages until midnight and rooting for Harry Green, the precocious young groom investigating a murder. Yet author Laura Stevenson has created far more than a wonderfully old-fashioned whodunnit–think Agatha Christie meets Remains of the Day; skillfully weaving the social tumult and psychological damage of  “the war to end all wars,” exposing a corrupt regime’s insidious classism and sexism, Stevenson illuminates an England in ragged transition. Stevenson’s crisp, spare prose is effortless to read–like 4 o’clock tea, but steeped with pathos and humanity. I sincerely hope we’ll be reading more of Harry Green’s adventures.”

–Melanie Finn, author of The Underneath and The Hare
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“All Men Glad and Wise is both a page-turning murder mystery and a fascinating glimpse into life in the Cotswolds area of England in the last century. Taking place when issues of class, background, and gender kept people ‘in their place,’ Stevenson's knowledge of horses—and horsemanship—add depth and interest to the story. The story begins in the spring of 1919, when England is recovering from the devastation of World War I and a global pandemic. The truth of young Harry’s identity adds intrigue, while Harry’s experience of grief and loss reverberates into our own time. A captivating read!”

—Liza Ketchum, author of The Last Garden: A Memoir and 17 books for children and young adults

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“Laura Stevenson creates a protagonist whose story proves as fascinating in its unravelling as the intricately woven plot of this murder mystery. As you careen toward its immensely satisfying conclusion, you’ll long to see Harry ride the magnificent horse Errant into a sequel to this ‘ripping’ tale.”

–Janis Bellow-Freedman, professor of literature, Tufts University

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“All Men Glad and Wise is a thoroughly engaging murder mystery set in the English countryside after World War I. It’s also a moving exploration of issues we confront a century later. Encountering them in this earlier setting offers a surprising perspective. Stevenson gives us Harry, a stable lad, consummate rider, and self-appointed detective, who decides to unmask a murderer using their powers of observation and bold intelligence. The mystery is embedded in a time of terrible loss and chaotic change after the War, and the uneasiness of a society moving out of centuries of rigid class structure and economic immobility. We experience all this through the caring heart and eyes of Harry. As we do, the challenges and opportunities of changing technologies and fractures in longstanding class and gender roles take hold of us in a new way. Harry’s tale reveals an unexpected past, but it also seems to pry the future open, even as it leaves questions unanswered. Harry is watched closely by several adults who offer the reader role models for the respect and support young people deserve as they face a world of unknowns. This book is a delight, opening us to the past and the present.”

–Scudder Parker, author of Safe as Lightning

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“All Men Glad and Wise is a delightful book for all readers who enjoy a very good story, beautifully told. Set in Oxfordshire, England after the first World War, the book offers an intriguing mystery full of twists and turns, a poignant account of coming of age in another era, and a glimpse into a lost world. Stevenson details with sensitivity and insight a time and place where horses and horsemanship were critically important to daily life, and where bad characters and evil actions could prove to be as challenging to a young person as the perils and complexities of growing up. Highly recommended!”

–Reeve Lindbergh, author of Two Lives and Under A Wing

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“Fourteen-year-old Harry Green knows horses. Trained under England’s most gifted horseman in the years before the Great War, Harry’s tenderness with both the animals and a visiting child on the once-grand estate of Willingford Hall is rooted in strength, wisdom, and grief, as well as love for family. Having discovered the steward of the Hall dead in the woods, Harry knows who to summon, and how to pay attention to the grudges and motives swirling through the estate. Harry’s own secret, a matter of identity, can’t be kept much longer. Scrutiny from the estate’s men and women may force a revelation that will shift life’s choices forever.

In Laura Stevenson’s experienced hands, this historical mystery of drastic loss and change in a war-torn nation focuses intently on the painful growth that adolescence invites. Taking risks on and off horseback, Harry hunts the murderer in order to save the Willingford Hall’s workers and their rurally nurtured dignity from the invasion of a harsh new world. Harry’s safety, the freedom of mourning families, and at last the survival of Willingford Hall itself depend on reading the horses and the humans with an accuracy grown from loyalty and love.”

–Beth Kanell, author of The Long Shadow and This Ardent Flame

Reviews & In the News

Bennington Banner, January 18, 2023: Wilmington author Laura Stevenson nominated for award

Bennington Banner, November 29, 2022: Book review: Laura C. Stevenson's new mystery does not dally

Women Writers, Women’s Books, October 14, 2022: Writing All Men Glad and Wise

Seven Days VT, July 13, 2022: Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont Books

Burlington Free Press, July 4, 2022: Settle into a summer vibe with one (or more) of these new Vermont books

Story Comic Podcast, May 23, 2022: Storycomic Presents (Episode 167): Laura C Stevenson, Award Winning Vermont Author

The Brattleboro Reformer, April 11, 2022: Wilmington author publishes eighth novel

Kirkus Reviews, March 2, 2022: A well-researched and convincing period whodunit.

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