The Baltimore Bell: A Dark Historical Mystery (Instead Book 1)

Martha Bright, born 1908, is too tall, too strong, too wrong for the world she was born into. Her parents gave her away and bought a son instead.
Emma, the orphanage cook, teaches Martha to survive through hard work. Emma gives Martha purpose—until one night when everything changes.
At fifteen, Martha needs a new name and a new life. She becomes Mary Johnson and disappears onto the Atlantic steamships, where women like her can work unseen in the belly of the ship.
But survival requires more than a new identity. Follow Mary through a dark psychological thriller as she discovers who she really is, where she fits—and what her hands are capable of when pushed too far.
A historical thriller about identity, violence, and becoming yourself in a world that has no place for you.