The Stockton Insane Asylum Murder - Portia of the Pacific Historical Mysteries, #3

The Stockton Insane Asylum MurderA Portia of the Pacific Best-Selling and Award-Winning Historical MysteryVolume 3 "Madness can be seen as an intuitive probing into true reality."-R. D. Laing Women were, among others, misdiagnosed as insane by alienists in the 1800s. A female child has been institutionalized in 1887, but the aunt of this child comes to Clara Foltz to say she believes the child was admitted to the Stockton State Insane Asylum (the first such institution in California) because she knew about a murder that was committed on her wealthy parent's estate.
Clara solicits the help of Elizabeth Packard, the crusading (real) activist who was committed in the 1860s by her husband.  It took Mrs. Packard three years to earn her freedom. Together with Ah Toy, they contrive a way to go undercover to gain admittance into the Women's Building at Stockton to find the child and determine what happened to have her institutionalized. Children were regularly institutionalized, as were the elderly and the feeble-minded.
Five of these characters are readers who won a raffle held by the author.  They are suspect asylum patients inside the Stockton State Insane Asylum, the first public mental hospital in California.  The author worked with each of these readers using their photos, descriptions and "personal idiosyncrasies" to craft the characters used in his mystery. BookLife Prize, 2018:  "A thrilling adventure, perfect for whodunit fans and historical fiction buffs." Kirkus Review:  "An entertaining mix of fact, fiction, feminism, and the occult."