I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

When Emily Dickinson’s brother and new sister-in-law move into their house across the street in Amherst, they announce that their first guest will be Ralph Waldo Emerson, the nation’s premier writer, who will be lecturing at the local college for a week. Emily welcomes him with flowers, but Emerson’s secretary Luther Howard rejects them, saying the writer has terrible hay fever. Howard sticks around long enough to turn the town upside down: He’s attacked by a peddler; the younger Dickinson sister, Lavinia, falls for his smooth ways; and Emily’s maid Willa overhears Emerson accusing Howard of stealing his writing. Soon Luther Howard is dead, killed by a poison in the Dickinson garden. Emily isn’t upset by his death but ropes Willa into the investigation because she doesn’t want the family reputation ruined. While Willa worries about her role in the case, Emily, being a Dickinson, presumes that she’s entitled to meddle and find the killer.