The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out. - Nellie Bly Elizabeth Cochrane has a secret. She isn't the madwoman with amnesia the doctors and inmates at Blackwell's Asylum think she is. In truth, she's working undercover for the New York World . When the managing editor refuses to hire her because she's a woman, Elizabeth strikes a deal: in exchange for a job, she'll impersonate a lunatic to expose a local asylum's abuses. When she arrives at the asylum, Elizabeth realizes she must make a decision-is she there merely to bear witness, or to intervene on behalf of the abused inmates? Can she interfere without blowing her cover? As the superintendent of the asylum grows increasingly suspicious, Elizabeth knows her scheme-and her dream of becoming a journalist in New York-is in jeopardy. A Feigned Madness is a meticulously researched, fictionalized account of the woman who would come to be known as daredevil reporter Nellie Bly. At a time of cutthroat journalism, when newspapers battled for readers at any cost, Bly emerged as one of the first to break through the gender barrier-a woman who would, through her daring exploits, forge a trail for women fighting for their place in the world. Debut author Mitchell brings the courageous, determined Nellie Bly to vivid life in this fictionalized account of one of Bly's most daring escapades: her ten days in the notorious asylum at Blackwell's Island. Mixing known history with intriguing speculation, Mitchell depicts the horrific conditions of the asylum, Bly's ambitious rise as a newspaperwoman, and the magnetic draw of forbidden love with equal skill. --Greer Macallister, USA Today best-selling author of The Magician's Lie and The Arctic Fury Mitchell takes us on a journey through the gates of hell to a place as mesmerizing as it is dark. A compelling read for anyone with an interest in Victorian history. --Pam Lecky, author of The Lucy Lawrence Mystery Series This vivid, enthralling novel of daredevil reporter Nellie Bly's undercover exposé of the abuses at Blackwell's Island Asylum for Women took me by the throat and never let go. Nellie Bly's ambitions, talents, pugnacity, and huge heart shine throughout. A Feigned Madness is a knockout. --Kim Taylor Blakemore, author of The Companion and After Alice Fell Tonya Mitchell lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and three sons. Her short fiction has appeared in various journals and anthologies. Her debut novel, A Feigned Madness , the story of Nellie Bly’ s undercover stay inside a women’ s asylum to report the atrocities within, won the Reader Views Reviewer’ s Choice Award and the Kops-Fetherling Phoenix Award for Best New Voice in Historical Fiction.