This HaBO request is from Kristine, who is looking for a doozy of a story. Content warning:
I’ve been trying to find a story from the 1980s (maybe the 1970s to 1990s) where a memorable (but not so memorable that I remember the title) plot line is there is a black market where babies are being sold, and it’s up to our heroine and her man to rescue the babies, or perhaps one particular baby (the heroine’s relative?). I have the sense that it was set in Ireland, likely in the “old days” (1800s?). I vaguely remember a character might have been named Maggie. I believe a washer woman/laundress (as she might have been called in the story) was either the baby seller or helped our couple find the baby seller. I think the baby selling was along the lines of orphans were taken in and cared for, but then sold, rather than adopted out. Or perhaps it was more sinister, like kids were stolen to be sold. That does ring a bell, especially. as I think the baby the couple was looking for was the heroine’s relative. I seem to remember they thought or knew the baby was in some kind of danger.
I think the heroine and her guy met in the course of her searching for the baby.
I thought I had read this in Good Housekeeping in the 80s, as I have a memory of drawings/illustrations of some of the scenes, like they used to do for the Good Housekeeping abridgments. But I went through all the Good Housekeepings from the 80s our library has in closed stacks, and didn’t find it. It may have been in some other magazine. I don’t think I read it in a book. I was a teenager when I came across it and it made an impression on me. I’d love to find out the title and author!
Well that’s certainly something.
I have no idea what this book is but the mention of laundry makes me think right away of the Magdalene laundries, those roman catholic institutions established in Ireland in the 18th century for « fallen women ». Lots of abuse and scandals are linked to these so it fits your plot.
It sounds exactly like the plot to Philomena.
It’s not a great match, but maybe Nora Roberts’ Donovan Legacy, specifically Enchanted? The heroine is a PI trying to find a missing baby and the hero is a witch who has ties to Ireland. He may be Irish, I don’t remember. They wind up cracking a trafficking ring, although I’m pretty sure it’s set on California. It’s been a long time since I read it. Sorry! Good luck with the search!
It’s not historical and it’s a book, not a short story, but Linda Howard’s Cry No More features a heroine uncovering a baby-smuggling ring.
It sounds like Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt but that’s only from 2010, it looks like
I remember when Good Housekeeping carried those stories, plus short stories–I always read my mom’s magazines.
Reader’s Digest carried some condensed novels, too, in the magazine. Might be another resource.
Have no idea I what this book is, but I wanted to say how much I used to love to read the abridged novels in GH. I read many a book in my mother’s magazine as pre-teen & teen.
Cry No More broke me and I stopped reading Linda Howard books for a very long time. It’s a great book but so sad.
I think this could be Entranced by Nora Roberts. The heroine is a PI called Mel who is looking for a friend’s missing baby and discovers a whole baby stealing operation. The love interest is a psychic/’witch’ called Sebastian who is very old world Ireland, lots of Celtic mythology and spirituality.
Trigger warning
There was an article about the Magdelane Laundries in Reader’s Digest in the 90s. In 1996, the story of the Laundries became known worldwide after 155 bodies were found at a former laundry that was sold. And in 1998, a documentary in the form of interviews with former “penitents” came out. It was called “Sex in a Cold Climate”. I remember reading about it at my grandmother’s who had a subscription to reader’s digest but not good housekeeping. Part of the story talked about trying to figure out if one woman’s child was sold or was one of the bodies buried at the laundries. (That child was adopted/sold). there were four women interviewed, one was raped by a cousin and put in for being promiscuous, one was pregnant out of wedlock and the baby was taken at the Laundries, one was put in for being too pretty, one was a child of the orphanage side, The penitents were refered to as Maggies and were slaves forced to do industrial laundry for hotels, the army, etc. Babies and children were often sold or adopted out. Since the story of the Laundries broke worldwide in the 90s, this might be a nonfiction story you’re looking for. Sorry I can’t give you a title or author. Maybe a librarian can check ebscohost or another article repository to find it.
Philomena was based on this but released in 2009
Nora Roberts’ Entranced does have a stolen baby plot, but it’s set in the contemporary-to-writing (1990s) US (mostly California), and doesn’t sound to me very much like this plot.
Along with the Magdelene Laundries there was this real life baby snatching scheme. https://www.insider.com/georgia-tann-tennessee-children-home-society-survivors-speak-out-2019-12
Please be aware that the above article includes all the trigger warnings.
No one will probably see this as I’m going through old email I’ve neglected, but I so fondly remember the stories in Good Housekeeping. I think I encountered Danielle Steele there for the first time in the mid seventies reading the magazine in my Grandmother’s living room.