‘The Harvey Girl’ (2026) – Clare Wright #1 by Dana Stabenow, narrated by Marguerite Gavin – great fun

1890. The New Mexico Territory is a lawless frontier where criminals steal money and land alike with impunity. Everyone wears a six-gun and is ready and willing to draw it.

In the new city of Montaña Roja, Fred Harvey’s growing empire is threatened by the robberies plaguing his newest Harvey House restaurant. To get justice, he needs a skilled detective to go undercover and procure answers to questions the law will not ask.

The assignment falls to Clare Wright, a young Pinkerton agent. Disguised as one of Harvey’s famous hostesses, Clare travels west where she risks being exposed at every step of her investigation. To get answers – and to get out alive – there are only two things she can trust: her instincts, and her derringer.

IN A NUTSHELL
First book in a new historical fiction series set in 1890s America. A strong, brave, resourceful, well-educated female Pinkerton agent as the main character. Propulsive thriller plot woven around real historical figures. Lots of action, much of it violent. It was a fast, fun and fascinating read. I want more, as soon as possible.

‘The Harvey Girl‘ is the first book in an historical fiction series about Pinkerton Agent Clare Wright in 1890s America, where, twenty-five years after the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln, the robber barons of the railroad have opened up the still largely lawless territories of the American West.

The story hooked me immediately, starting with a dramatic prologue, set in 1868, describing the traumatic birth of the baby who will become our heroine, establishing an air of mystery and a suggestion of tragedy about her from the beginning.

The action then moved to the Red Mountain Express, which, en route from Chicago to Montaña Roja in the New Mexico Territory, is stopped in the middle of the night in the high desert and robbed at gunpoint by a highly organised crew, leaving a dead body in their wake.

We finally meet Clare as, working undercover, she brings a fraud case to a spectacular close before being called back to headquarters to be given a new assignment working undercover for a very high-profile client: Fred Harvey, founder and manager of the Harvey Houses. Fred wants Clare to investigate the train robberies while working as a Harvey Girl.

I liked the way Dana Stabenow wove real people, like the Pinkerton Brothers, Fred Harvey and even Mark Twain, into the story. They provided a credible context for Clare to work in without getting the reader bogged down in a long history lesson.

The mystery that Clare is tasked with solving is a solid one, and the Harvey Girl culture is vividly brought to life, but, for me, it was Clare who gave the story its sparkle. She was clever, brave, well-educated, focused, lied fluently to everyone to protect her cover story of being a Harvey Girl, and always carried her Derringer. I enjoyed getting to know her and seeing her worldview expand as she started to fall in love with the American West.

There was a lot of violence in the story, but then this was the American West before the law had arrived, when the billionaires of the day regularly demonstrated that the law didn’t apply to them.

The book doesn’t have a cliff-hanger ending, but it does have a Season 1, Episode 1 feel, where many possibilities are left open, not all mysteries are solved, and it is clear that we will meet some of the most charismatic characters again in the next book. I was fine with that, even if I have to wait a year for Episode 2.

I recommend the audiobook version of ‘The Harvey Girl’. I loved listening to Marguerite Gavin bring this world to life. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

It seemed to me that Dana Stabenow had a great time researching the environment that Clare was working in. She’s shared some photos from her October 2024 research trip in northwestern New Mexico on her blog, including this one of the Harvey House in Belen, New Mexico, which was the model for the Montaña Roja Harvey House in The Harvey Girl’.