Detective Hannah: The First Case

By Natalie Hannah

William Hannah is a scientific-minded farmer who leaves his familiar homeland of Ireland to start a new life in Philadelphia. His uncommon intellect lands him the opportunity to join the police force. He finds love and starts a family. In his pursuit of a mysterious killer, he loses everything only to find his purpose. William teaches us how persistence prevails as he pushes through personal pain to find our killer. Detective Hannah: The Sugarhouse Slasher takes the reader on a crime-solving adventure. Every new clue needs to be evaluated for its validity as well as its contradictory intent. Ribboned with romance and intrigue, this journey will leave you longing for his next page-turning adventure. Detective Hannah will not stop short of creating a fandom for mystery readers everywhere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669853237

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Copyright © 2022 by Natalie Hannah.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/27/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

847556

This book is

dedicated to my grandfather William J. Hannah.

I hope I can be the storyteller you were.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Crossing the Pond

Chapter 2 In the Earth Again

Chapter 3 Meeting Mary

Chapter 4 Sugar

Chapter 5 Making Progress

Chapter 6 Back to Work

Chapter 7 New Beginnings

Chapter 8 Summer Break

CHAPTER 1

Crossing the Pond

G ray fog lingered as a rancid mist enveloped me. Stench infused our clothes with remnants of two weeks of steamship travel. Fragrant waves of fresh air unexpectedly rose with the strong wind. Crossing from Ireland to the United States was just one more obstacle I overcame that year. I stood in line for the last eight hours after receiving my number. The number that I earned after passing through medical and intellectual assessments.

My heart broke for a rejected lad pleading to not be forced to return to our homeland. Many were denied the opportunity to redeem their family indentures due to a past ill or illiteracy.

Once at the front of the line, I had to renounce my previous citizenship, a task not desirable but easily reversed once I obtained my bounty. I signed the paper only to be directed to an ocean of others streaming into transport barges. Already, I met a man who had relatives in Philadelphia. As I shared my spirits with him, he spoke of his brother’s business that provided him passage to Ellis. He told me to be ready to make way for the ship to Philadelphia. Walter’s talented family businesses did everything: his brother Grady laid bricks, Connor fixed shoes, and Ronan was a fisherman; and they all had other jobs as well. I asked if he knew of any jobs about tending grounds on some of the larger estates in the growing city. I read up on the recent growth in Philadelphia before I left to prepare for my future opportunities. I loved working in the soil, and I fancy I’d finally get paid for my skill, unlike back home. The land I loved that I had to leave. I remember it so well ...

It was planting season when I was just a lad and my dad explained to me, the oldest, that the land was ours. We had a bad run in the past two years. My fifteen and sixteen years were hard. For a season, the cabbage was full of maggots. Finally, I figured that if we planted radish, we would have success. It was much less desirable for us, but the bugs weren’t after those plants. Once the radish was harvested, we burned the remainder of the stems to the ground, and the ash made the soil intolerable for maggots. We had no more problems.

There was always something that I had to figure out on the farm. We owned two farms: the first was the largest—seventy-five acres—and that would remain in the main stead for as long as my da lived. The second was plenty for