The Secrets of Lizzie Borden

This richly imagined novel "breathes life and depth into . . . one of the most infamous figures in American history"—from the author of The Ripper's Wife (Publishers Weekly).

What drove Lizzie Borden to commit such a shocking crime on that stifling August morning in 1892?

She should be one of the most fortunate young women in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her wealthy father could easily afford to provide his daughters with fashionable clothes, travel, and a rich, cultured life. Instead, haunted by the ghost of childhood poverty, he forces Lizzie and her sister, Emma, to live frugally, denying them the simplest modern conveniences, and chasing off their gentlemen callers whom he sees as fortune hunters. Lonely and deeply unhappy, Lizzie stifles her frustration, dreaming of the freedom that will come with her eventual inheritance. But when that chance of future independence is about to be ripped away, Lizzie's long-simmering anger finally explodes . . .

"In a wonderfully histrionic voice that makes the character believable even as she does things that are beyond belief," Brandy Purdy explores the secrets behind a crime that continues to grip the public imagination—a story of how thwarted desires and desperate rage could turn a dutiful daughter into a notorious killer (Historical Novel Society).

"Readers who like their historicals spicy will enjoy this . . . treatment of the notorious Lizzie's life and crimes." —Publishers Weekly