Customer Reviews

Miss Lizzie

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

 

 

A great, insightful read throughout, but Miss Lizzie ends as surprisingly and satisfyingly as any mystery I've read. Squeamish readers may be put off by the very grisly murders, but the novel works as a mystery, as a reconsideration of history and as a coming-of-age story.

I understand that original hardback versions of this are much prized and very hard to find, but the price of the paperback does seem curiously high.

An excellent fictionalized account of what happened to Lizzie Borden after the notorious trial. On one level, it's a bittersweet story of an unlikely friendship between a shunned old woman and a child, and, on another level, it's a compelling tale of a suspenseful summer. The sly ending will surprise you!

Whether you've read a lot about Lizzie Borden or nothing, you'll really like this finely crafted mystery.

The eponymous Miss Lizzie is non other than Lizzie Borden ,but this is not a novel about the events that propelled her into national notoriety ,the murders in Falls River ,Massachusetts ,for which she was tried and -controversially -acquitted .Rather it is set a generation later , in 1921 ,in a small coastal resort where she is now living .
The Burton family take up residence for the Summmer ,and the narrator of the novel is 13 year old Amanda Burton -bright ,inquisitive and lively of mind . Her father is frequently absent in Boston and the rest of the family consists of her older brother William , plus her stepmother Audrey .Audrey is disliked by the children and she in turn dislikes them neither parety being unduly concerned to conceal their opinions from each other .It is a loveless marriage on all sides .
Amanda is thrown much upon her own devices and befriends the reclusive and notorious Lizzie who teaches her card tricks ,her experise being the result of hours of solitary practice ,a bye product of loneliness and social ostracisation .
The ,one hot August day ,murder rears its ugly head .The stepmother is murdered -cut to pieces with an axe .The local police chief suspects Lizzie ,based on past experience ( he was an officer in Falls River during the Borden murders).There are other supects however .William and Audrey quarrellled violently on the day of the murder and he has gone missing ;nor does Mr Burton have a watertight alibi .The town has racial tensions and some would like to pin the crime on a local black tradesman seen in the area while others are persuaded it was the work of anarchists ( The book makes explicit the fear of anarchism and Bolshevism that wracked America after WW1 -alluding to the Sacco and Vanzetti case ,explicitly )
Employing a shrewd local lawyer ,and a Pinkerton agent Lizzie resolves to uncover the mystery as much for her own safety as anything else --she is pelted by the mob who hover ghoulishly outside her home )It builds to a climax whose grand guignol qualities are slightly at odds with the tone of the bulk of the book ./
The author shrewdly teases us with the possibility of her guilt both for the crime in the book and Falls River -similarities between the two are pointed out ( The death of a step-parent ;the modus operandi .the very hot weather ;the physical similarities of the dwellings in which the murders took place )
It is satisfying as a mystery ,has a convincing narrator and leaves the figure of Lizzie Borden what it should always be --a fascinating enigma .

Well written and satisfying on every level

I've been looking for an affordable version of this book for YEARS. (Collectible copies of the original hardcovers go for up to $400.) Mr. Satterthwait tackles a century-old conundrum with imagination and humor. Did she or didn't she?

This book was extremely hard to put down! It is perfectly paced and made the characters come to life. Miss Borden was particularly well-defined; she came alive as a person, not just a figure in a dusty old murder trial.

I look forward to reading many more of Mr. Satterthwait's books.