This third Abigail Adams mystery is set against the tense times after the Boston Tea Party that winter. It's May and the colonies are expecting a reply from the King any day now and it may just mean war, so the Sons of Liberty are stockpiling arms and making preparations. Abigail receives an odd letter from her nephew, Horace, who is a freshman at Harvard and very astute in many languages, also serves as a "fag" (an underclassman who does odd jobs for an upperclassman) for George Fairfield, an upperclassman who is from Virginia and came with his, as he calls him, "gentlemanly" slave, Diomede. Horace writes that a Mrs. Lake came with letters of recommendation from John and a judge and had her carriage take him out into the country to a deserted house to translate some Arabic papers. Most of them are of a rather intimate recounting of an affair the pirate John Morgan had.

An old widow woman, whose ancestor was a pirate, found his old books and sold them off after the odd death of her husband. She sold some Arabic books to Horace, some chemistry and astrology books to the Indian [yes, it took me a good third of the way into the book to discover he was a Native American] Weymouth, and over fifty to someone else. It seems that her ancestor may have a treasure supply somewhere, perhaps where he lived in the forests when he stayed amongst the Indians for a while before coming to spend his last days with his son.

Mr. Ryland, the head of the hall where Fairfield and Horace live, puts it about that Horace ate something disagreeable, which wouldn't be suspicious since he has a delicate stomach and cannot even drink tea or eat wheat bread. Mr. Ryland served under Fairfield in the King's Volunteers a while back. Both of them, as are half of the county, are after the hand of a rich landowner's daughter. Mr. Ryland, however, is at Harvard on a scholarship from the Governor of Massachusetts.

On the day that Abigail arrives, she, Weymouth, Horace, George, and Diomede, go to the local tavern for dinner to discuss the situation. The next morning, George is found stabbed to death, his slave Diomede, drunk, and drugged, with a bloody letter opener next to his body. The two books that George bought from the widow are missing. Abigail goes back to Boston with the rest of the books and hides them at Sam Adams' house because they may be of value to someone enough to kill. Sam, of course, when he hears of the treasure, is less interested in helping to get Diomede cleared from murder and out of jail than he is the treasure that could buy gunpowder and weapons.

As usual, Abigail worries, in the back of her mind about taking care of the home and leaving it all to their relative/servant girl. She receives help from an unexpected source. It turns out that George, married months before he died to a tavern owner's daughter, named Katy, who is pregnant, but really full of spirit and on the side of the colonists, even if her husband was a Loyalist.

Then tragedy strikes and Abigail begins to question her doing "men's work" and not staying at home and taking care of the kids, her husband, and the house. She knows God made her do more than just be a mother and housewife, but by doing so, she has put her family in danger and all over something that may not be what the average person thinks of as treasure but is none-the-less quite priceless in its own way.

This book keeps you on pins and needles as the looming threat of the King's wrath sweeps into everything and the reality of war begins to hit the colonists, who are now realizing they are going to have to pick a side. Also, you see a woman who is quite beyond her time. If she would have been allowed, she would have aced her way through Harvard, and quite possibly become a lawyer like her husband, or something equally demanding of her high intellect. Instead, she is forced to live in a world devalues women as only good for child rearing. John, to his credit, never treats her this way, nor do the other members of the Sons of Liberty. This is a trying mystery in that it is quite possible someone killed Fairfield not because of a bizarre treasure, but because of his leadership skills in the King's Volunteers that will be rather valuable in these trying times. This is the last, so far, published mystery from this series. I wait with baited breath for the next one. ( )

I do love this series. Not only is Abigail Adams ("Consider the ladies...") the main character, but it sheds a light on pre-Revolutionary Boston, and the various sets of interests and beliefs that led to the Revolutionary War.

Not that Abigail- and her husband John- are not the dedicated patriots that his cousin Sam Adams is.

In these books Abigail probably does act with more autonomy and support than would likely have been allowed, no matter how supportive her husband... but it works anyway.

I especially liked the conflicts that people in Colonial times were facing as to whether to join up with the "patriots' or the Tories. It was a lot more complicated than the history books say.

The characters were well-drawn and complex. The plot was nicely twisty. Abigail was a great protag! Still- for me, the best part of this book was enriching the context in which the Revolution happened.

While it might help to have read the previous 2 books, this one works fine on its own. ( )

Sup with the Devil is the third in the Abigail Adams Mysteries set in Boston in the 1770s. In this installment, one of Mrs. Adams' nephews, a student at nearby Harvard, has requested her help as he fears someone has tried to kill him. While she is visiting him in Cambridge, one of Horace's fellow students and friends is killed. Naturally, she gets involved in the investigation of both. But the events are overshadowed by the political situation - the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party.

I think what I appreciate most about this book (and the series in general) is that it seems true to period in a way that most historical mysteries aren't. Abigail Adams is an intelligent woman, educated and curious about the world around her, but her mindset is that of a late 18th Century woman. She is busy with keeping the house, including churning butter, marketing, cooking and mending, as well as looking after the children. She also feels guilty for not leaving work undone while she is trying to discover more about the incidents.

Definitely recommended to anyone who likes intelligent historical mysteries.

Why I picked it up: I think I can blame a tor.com post on me reading The Ninth Daughter and read the latter two as a result. ( )

"Sup with the Devil" is the 3rd book in the Abigail Adams Mysteries written by Barbara Hamilton. I love this series and hope that it will continue. A summary of the plot from the blurb:

"After an attempt on the life of her young nephew Horace, Abigail Adams, wife of attorney John Adams, travels to Harvard to investigate. A mysterious woman hired Horace to translate some Arabic, then left him at the mercy of her henchmen. He survived-with a tale of pirate treasure...

Meanwhile one of Horace's fellow students-loyal to the King-is murdered. The Sons of Liberty are desperate to find the rumored gold, but Abigail wants the truth. For the Devil's treasure comes with a curse that could bring down anyone, regardless of where their allegiance lies."

This novel is the best of the 3 in the series. The author has met her stride with Sup and I hope that there are more books coming. Not that the author, Barbara Hamilton, doesn't know how to write a great mystery. She has written most of her books as Barbara Hambly.

Ms. Hamilton has stayed true to character in her depiction of Abigail Adams. Mrs. Adams was a highly intelligent and well read woman whose advice was sought by not only her husband, but other high ranking men of the era. She basically raised her kids by herself as John was gone for years in Paris, Amsterdam and London where he lobbied for the new nation. She ran their farm and for the most part was the only farmer in the family. I love that Ms. Hamilton did not make her a ridiculous figure as Elliott Roosevelt did with his mother. Maintaining some of the language of the colonial era makes Sup a great historical mystery. ( )

One of my favorites of the newer series, this third one finds Abigail Adams trying to solve the murder of a student at Harvard College. Love Hamilton's descriptions of daily life in Colonial America, domestic and political, the characters prominent at that time such as The Sons of Liberty and Paul Revere.Very well done historical mysteries. ( )