Amy Gilman Srebnick is Professor of History at Montclair State University. She was co-editor of The Mythmaking Frame of Mind: Social Imagination and American Culture.

Everyone loves a good mystery. And the mysteries abound in Amy Gilman Srebnick's absorbing new work....With this book, the mysterious death of Mary Rogers should take its place beside other crimes that have shocked Americans into action, or at least into deep reflection about our society

• 1. Prologue: The Mary Rogers Tragedy 2. A Body Floating Between Two TidesThe DiscoveryOf Boarders and Other SuspectsThe Mary Rogers Mystery 3. "The Beautiful Segar Girl": Mary in the City of the New WorldOf Mothers and RogersesThe Beautiful Segar GirlOf Tobacco Shops, Sporting Culture, and BoardinghousesConclusion: Mary in the Land of Strangers 4. The "Public Prints," the Body of Mary Rogers, and the Violence of RepresentationThe Public PrintsThe Tortured Body and the Violence of RepresentationThe Press Invents the Death of Mary Rogers 5. "Who Murdered Mary Rogers?": Police Reform, Abortion, and the Criminalization of Private LifePolicing the City: The Case of Police ReformPolicing Sex: The Case of Madame RestellPostscript 6. Poe Detects Marie: Poe, Mary Rogers, and the Birth of Detective FictionThe Problematic SpectaclePoe Detects the CityThe Public Prints: Poe Gives a Lesson in ReadingLandscaping the Female Body: The Mystery of Marie Roget 7. Tales of New York in the Ink of Truth: Reinventing Mary RogersReinventing Mary RogersInventing HistoryConclusion: Tales of New York EpilogueNotesSelected BibliographyIndex