Customer Reviews

Blood Red Roses

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This wonderful book, the second in a series about Hannah Trevor a midwife in Colonial America, is a must read for all lovers of history and/or mystery. Margaret Lawrence is a talented author who has obviously done a great deal of research about Colonial America and it's inhabitants. After reading this book and Blood Read Roses, I became very grateful to be a woman of the 20th century!

Since there's no 5+ button, I have to type out how wonderful I think this book is. I was hooked on Hannah Trevor, the Maine midwife in post-revolutionary times, after the first book, Hearts and Bones. Not only did Margaret Lawrence capture with compassion and accuracy the life experiences of a midwife in the wilderness, she managed to construct a fairly suspenseful mystery. While Hearts and Bones was as good as any Anne Perry novel, Blood Red Roses is simply magnificent in plot, detail, and narrative.

In this second book Hannah discovers the fate of the husband she has long thought dead. This brings her into the eye of the storm in Rufford, and the simmering animosities of the community are directed at her. There are also developments in the life of her deaf and mute daughter Jennet, and in her passion for Ralph Josselin, a married landowner. For anyone who has ever loved deeply this book is just riveting since you can feel Hannah's bottled-up feelings bursting from every page. A taut, satisfying, and mystifying sequel.

I was surprised by Blood Red Roses. I had like Hearts and Bones, but found the story frequently overshadowed by the lyrical quality of the authors writing. While this does tend to still occur in Blood Red Roses, it's on a much lesser scale and so I was able to appreciate the story more.

Hanna Trevor, midwife in Rufford Maine has believed her husband to be dead for months when a series of murders occurs in her town in the midsts of summer. Her supposedly dead husbands' body, along with that of his new wife and children, is found the night of the harvest festival. Hanna is immediately a suspect, as a footprint left in blood shows the killer to be female.

Of course Hanna didn't do it. We know this because some chapters in this book, as in the previous, are devoted to the murderer's perspective. (This is a great writing style for mystery books.) The story in this book is fascinating and augmented by Hannah being called before an orphan master's court to prove she can provide for her child, who is also the illegitimate daughter of her lover Daniel (note: the love story in this book is very sweet and tender.)

I liked this book a lot and would recommend it highly. Be warned though, like the first book in this series it is quite dark. Insane people seem to crop frequently in these books and the way they're insanity is described is both horrifying and very accurate. In fact, I've never seen mental distress portrayed so well in writing before.

I rank this a sold 4.5 stars.

This book, along with the first book in the Hannah Trevor series, is clever, well researched and haunting. I felt drained after reading both books and had to read at least three or four light hearted books in between. I think Margaret Lawrence is one of the most gifted mystery writers out there today, and anybody who is not reading her because they don't read "historical" mysteries, needs to give her a try.

Intriguing characters, an unusual historical setting and complex plotting make Blood Red Roses a fitting follow-up to Margaret Lawrence's Hearts and Bones. In the difficult years following the Revolutionary War, midwife and Royalist widow Hannah Trevor struggles to keep her deaf-mute daughter from being taken from her and indentured as a servant. Few novels deal with the post-revolutionary era, when many were disillusioned with the way their new country was developing, and former Patriots faced losing their land or were threatened with debtors' prison under new tax codes. Many middle-class Tories who had fled to England or Canada were returning home and attempting to reestablish themselves in the new United States. The Maine village of Rufford is still reeling from the divisions of war and many cruel memories are awakened when a woman and her children are murdered. Conclusions jump to Hannah, who, with her Tory connections and illegitimate child, has few defenses. Can she clear herself or must she leave? And what of her daughter's father, the man she loves but cannot have? Margaret Lawrence has created conflicted, appealing characters, surrounded them with rich historical detail and the result is a tremendously satisfying book that can be enjoyed as a mystery, historical fiction or romantic suspense. Developments in the relationship between Hannah and the man she loves makes Blood Red Roses very different from Hearts and Bones and promises that the next book (please let there be one!) will have new pleasures to offer.

It is hard to find a hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat mystery that is also so beautifully, intelligently written. I'm hooked on Margaret Lawrence now! Her books are like reading a great poem and a great "whodunnit" all at the same time. Often, it seems, women writers will discuss the plights of women by being preachy. Lawrence paints a gripping picture in all her books of the unbelievable evils women have faced without ramming it down anyone's throats. Her subtle mater-of-factness is what I find so endearing. I just hope I can find more books by her! And by the way, don't pick up any of the Hannah Trevor books if you have a lot to get done, because it's impossible to put them down!

Those who have read Hearts and Bones, the first novel in the series, will already know that Hannah Trevor is one of those haunting characters you simply cannot get out of your mind. Strong and wounded, fearful and brave, she is a walking bundle of contradictions, anger, and tenderness.

Reading one of Margaret Lawrence's novels about Trevor is like taking a long walk in an 18th century Maine midwife's shoes. The walk is not always pleasant, but it is always rewarding and fascinating. In this second novel, we begin by learning the fate of Hannah's long-gone husband James Trevor, a British sympathizer in the War for Independence. This news shocks Rufford to its core, and stirs up the barely controlled anger of the community. The news of James is accompanied by the gruesome murder of a poor family, and soon Hannah Trevor is the leading suspect. It is only with the help of her lover, Daniel Josselyn, that Hannah is exonerated from the suspicion that she is a murderer.

Lawrence knows her subject well, and conveys it with a passion and feeling that are remarkable. I wept and I rejoiced with Hannah during this novel, which I literally could not put down. Treat yourself to a wonderful weekend with this extraordinary midwife--you will not be disappointed.

This book was rich in history and suspense. I loved it! Anybody who loves reading about history will truly enjoy this book. The time after the Revoluntionary War was a troubling time, and a time that most people don't know much about. If you are a history buff, this is a MUST READ.

In 1786 Maine, Hannah Trevor finds her world collapsing. The local Rufford judicial officials believe that she is an unfit mother and want to take away Jennet, her eight year deaf child by indenturing the lass to another family. James, her loyalist husband, reportedly dead in Canada, arrives only to be found recently murdered in the filed of Hannah's former lover. Another corpse of a woman, who has claimed that she was the legal wife of James, is found. The townsfolk all agree that the prime suspect is that unfit mother Hannah.

Hannah's only ally is Daniel Josselyn, the biological father of Jennet, but even he cannot stop the local officials willing to hang Hannah as a scapegoat for the murders. It is up to the intrepid Hannah to learn what happened to her spouse and who truly did it if she wants to escape the gallows.

BLOOD RED ROSES is an exciting historical mystery that brings alive the first era after the end of the American revolution. Hannah is a great protagonist and the support cast add authenticity to a fabulous who-done-it. The historical detail brings more genuine feel to the complex plot, making Margaret Lawrence's second book (HEARTS AND BONES) one of the top historical fictions of the year. Anyone who enjoys this sub-genre, needs to read both of Ms. Lawrence's Trevor tales.

Harriet Klausner

I fell in love with historical mysteries starting w/Anne Perry. Suddenly there are quite a few series and each of them have their strengths. I enjoyed Margaret Lawrence's first book enough to buy the second. From the outset, I found myself once again unable to piece together enough of the clues that were under my nose to solve the mystery until almost the end. I enjoy the characters, who are well written and not anachronistic at all. I also find myself appalled at the hardships of a time period that has been far too romanticized. I know I will continue with this series and strongly recommend it to anyone who can take the time out of their busy day (and night) to read this book.