Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Bur Oak Book) [Paperback]

Patricia L. Bryan (Author), Thomas Wolf (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1587296055 | ISBN-13: 978-1587296055 | Publication Date: August 15, 2007 | Edition: 1

On the night of December 1,1900, Iowa farmer John Hossack was attacked and killed while he slept at home beside his wife, Margaret. On April 11, 1901, after five days of testimony before an all-male jury, Margaret Hossack was found guilty of his murder and sentenced to life in prison. One year later, she was released on bail to await a retrial; jurors at this second trial could not reach a decision, and she was freed. She died August 25, 1916, leaving the mystery of her husband's death unsolved.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Historical whodunit devotees who have devoured all the literature on famous real-life mysteries will delight in this stirring and evocative account of an obscure turn-of-the-century Iowa murder. Law professor Bryan and her husband, Wolf, a writing consultant, vividly bring to life the baffling events of the night of December 1, 1900, when a well-to-do farmer named John Hossack was fatally attacked with an ax while sleeping in his bed. Suspicions soon focused on his long-suffering wife, Margaret, who claimed to have been asleep by her husband's side when the assault took place. A history of domestic strife convinced the local authorities that she had finally snapped after years of threats and verbal abuse. As the evidence against her was only circumstantial, her guilt was a matter of dispute, even after her conviction (eventually reversed on appeal). Alternate theories of the crime, accusing the Hossacks' children, disgruntled neighbors or a "mysterious horseman," should have been a little more fleshed out by the authors. Nonetheless, they vividly portray the era's attitudes toward women (indicated by a tolerance of domestic abuse) while crafting a tale that reads like a good novel, complete with clues—like a dog that failed to bark—that feel straight from Perry Mason The tale is given heightened immediacy by the authors' description of how alive the case still is in the minds of local townspeople even a century later—Bryan and Wolf were even warned they might be in danger if they got too close to the truth.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

 "[An] engrossing real-life whodunit."—USA Today

"Aficionados of the unsolved case may find a delectable example in this retelling of the little-known but gruesome murder of an Iowa farmer. Meticulously but briskly rendered mystery."--Kirkus

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (August 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587296055
• ISBN-13: 978-1587296055
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than a good mystery...a hauntingly true story, April 16, 2005

By 

Carol R. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Hardcover)

This book was a great read! It felt like I was reading fiction but was haunted knowing it was a true story. I couldn't put it down as I kept developing new theories about the who might have killed John Hossack or why -- thinking surely I could figure it out by the end. But I couldn't. The issues about women's rights, family violence, and the how the medical, mental health, and legal systems (or lack of systems) operated in 1900 are fascinating and made me think about what has and hasn't changed. The clear descriptions let me visualize the farmhouse and imagine every drop of blood and where it landed.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really excellent account, June 23, 2005

By 

Schmerguls "schmerguls" (Sioux City, Ia USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Hardcover)

This book is a superbly researched account of the murder of John Hossack on Dec. 2, 1900, in Warren County, Iowa, and of the events that followed that murder. After you have read the book you will want to read the opinion of the Iowa Supreme Court in State v. Hossack, 116 Iowa 194, 89 N.W. 1077 (1902). I have never seen better research and insight into the legal events connected with a crime--actually more authentic than Capote's In Cold Blood. And it also throws light on the early life of Susan Glaspell as well--she was a reporter covering the trial of the accused murderer. You will not soon forget this well-written book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living history in print, April 29, 2005

By 

Ned Wheeler (Naperville, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Hardcover)

This book grabbed my attention from the start. The authors have captured the details of a mysterious tragedy, extracting from the historic record the perceptions and experiences and the breathing presence of the participants, and woven a narrative fabric that is compelling and evocative.

During the description of the hours and days immediately following the murder, the story line is particularly vivid, and several pages into this section I realized that information derived from witness testimony had been ingeniously interleaved in the real-time hour-by-hour description of who saw and noticed what. For example, the handing around of the family axe among visiting neighbors, and observation of hair and blood on the axe, prior to its being secured by the sheriff, is told with an immediacy that is truly striking in its verisimilitude.

This retelling of the witness testimony as it was chronologically experienced by the witnesses prepares the reader for the drama of the courtroom scene, while tightening its narrative. The climactic description of the display of the murder bed by the prosecution lawyer, pulling aside the bloodied covers to reveal the "mass of blood showing where John Hossack's body had lain," highlights the conviction conveyed by this state attorney, who temporarily persuaded me of the wife's guilt, in the heat of his closing statement.

The best writing does not depend on surprising turns of plot to carry a tale, but comes to life in the reader's re-living the events in empathy with its characters. Rarely have I seen this successfully executed in a book of non-fiction: hats off to Patricia Bryan and Thomas Wolf! What's your next book?