The Burning Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

by Margaret Lawrence (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Life in Maine in the years after the Revolutionary War continues to be hard for Hannah Trevor, the gifted, conflicted midwife who sprang to full reality in Margaret Lawrence's Hearts and Bones and continued to grow in its equally strong successor, Blood Red Roses. Five months pregnant with the much-wanted child of her lover, the English aristocrat Daniel Josselyn, strong-willed Hannah still can't decide if she wants to marry him. "It seemed too much like a fairy tale to be credited and, like a stone in her boot heel, the voice of reason grumbled: Madam Midwife, you are eight-and-thirty, and froward. He finds you pleasant enough in the darkness, no doubt.... I am not made for a gentleman's lady. I will wound him one day, deep, deep." Meanwhile, Hannah's position as an equal, honored guest in the welcoming household of her Aunt Julia and Uncle Henry Markham is threatened by the demands of their jealous daughter-in-law, Sally. Sally is married to the Markham's fugitive son Jonathan who is under sentence of death for nonpayment of taxes to the financially and morally bankrupt new country. "Julia stared into the kettle, her mouth set and her eyes brimming. If he lived and was pardoned at last, Jonathan would one day inherit Two Mills from his father. And Julia's own place in the house would then depend almost entirely upon Sally's good will." Hannah and Daniel's troubles are increased by two murders: of a local sawbones who brought charges against the midwife for criticizing his overuse of narcotics, and of a high-court official killed by militiamen under Daniel's control.

As she did in her two previous books, Lawrence uses the metaphor and skills of quilting to stitch together fictional and real public documents (a quote from Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson is particularly telling), recipes, household tips, journal fragments, and easily accessible period dialogue into a book with perhaps a bit more history than mystery but enough delight and dignity to be fully satisfying. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Pregnant women and jealous men populate the landscape of Lawrence's third heavily atmospheric Revolutionary War story (after Blood Red Roses and Hearts and Bones) featuring Maine midwife Hannah Trevor, who once again contends with authority, both individual and institutional, to save her own life and the lives of those she loves. During the annual military muster, the body of "barber-surgeon" Samuel Clinch is found shot in the head and the chest and with his feet burned. Hannah, four months pregnant with her lover Daniel's child, becomes a suspect because she had publicly derided Clinch's methods of childbirthing. She's let off the hook when another scapegoat, Clinch's black servant, is blamed for the killing. When Master Royallton-Smith of the General Court is shot twice?like Clinch?militiamen are present, and Daniel, as their commander, is held responsible. Hannah manages to marry Daniel before he is taken away. Then, to secure the serene family life that she desires, she sets about to discover who killed the two prominent men. But in the postwar milieu of the 1780s, determining who had cause to murder Clinch and Royallton-Smith yields a tangled web of intrigue. In the middle of the knotted case are three pregnant weavers whose men seek retaliation for the women's abuse at the hands of wealthy, amoral men. Rife with period detail and heavy with references to repressed emotion and sexuality, this third historical saga nearly buries its thin thread of mystery in the oppressive tale of postwar machinations and tortured personal intentions.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Avon; Reprint edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380796120
• ISBN-13: 978-0380796120
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,038,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible story, April 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Burning Bride (Hardcover)

After reading Hearts and Bones and Blood Red Roses by Margaret Lawrence I couldn't resist spending a few extra dollars on the hardback edition of The Burning Bride. I wasn't disappointed.

This is an incredible series set a few years after the Revolutionary War in Maine. The story centers around Hanna Trevor, the local mid-wife, her lover Daniel Josselyn and their daughter, Jennett.

In each book the story becomes more complex and the characters are more interesting. The series is about life after the Revolutionary War and how everything wasn't the picture perfect life everybody thought it to be. Greed, debtors prison, taxes, murder, treason, audultery, rape, prostitution and love are all intertrined in this incredible story. Ms. Lawrence has outdone herself.

I definetly recommend starting with the first of the series.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative historical fiction, November 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Burning Bride (Hardcover)

These three books are a must-read for anyone interested in the post revolutionary period. Beautifully written, unusual in form, with wonderful characterizations: Lawrence succeeds where so many don't even try to make us understand the women of this time and place. There is a love story (although I would disagree with the reviewer -- it is not steamy, but simply evocative, and touching), and there are mysteries, and both of them are wonderfully done but these novels are more than the sum of their parts. Lawrence draws on the life of Hannah Trevor, a midwife who lived in Maine during this period, and in doing so she brings that resonant and important voice back to life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ending Rules!!!, December 15, 2001

By	Isabelle Archer (US Virgin Islands) - See all my reviews

Hannah Trevor is a wonderful character. Margaret Lawrence really does a wonderful job with the tone and detail of this post-American Revolution series of mysteries.

Another day in Rufford, Maine, another murder for Hannah Trevor, soon to be Mrs. Daniel Josselyn, to solve. But of course, nothing is that simple. Her beloved cousin Jonathan has run off into the wilderness, still involved with the regulators movement. She worries about the fate of her deaf daughter. It doesn't help, of course, that Daniel is somewhat suspected of the murder...

As usual, the prose of this novel is wonderful, a real pleasure to read. I'm not sure, however, that I liked this book as much as the other two. I didn't like the retrospective portrayal of the late Charlotte Josselyn. I did really like Sibylla, though. And Jem Siwall, for some reason. Sherriff Tapp is an excellent bad guy, though he gets a little weird toward the end of this one.

The last scene, though...It is so wonderful. I loved it, a perfect fiery climax to this little trilogy. It redeemed anything that bothered me about the whole rest of the book. Excellent. Margaret Lawrence has a real talent, in my book. I have my eye out for a paperback of Icebreaker, her new novel, so I hope that'll be good.

The Hannah Trevor mysteries are wonderful. Read them, it's a real experience!