Book Review: The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson AND a Video Interview AND Chance to Win a Trip to Fall River!

Wow. This was SO detailed, and yet at the end of the day, I don’t feel like I know anything more than I did before… Which is, of course, almost entirely the point.

This was a minute-by-minute covering of the infamous trial of Lizzie Borden. I’m a lawyer, and I probably enjoy a courtroom procedural more than the next guy. The nuance, the order in which things happen/are revealed, the decisions over legal minutiae that seem insignificant but turn out to have unimaginable importance – these fascinate me.

But even I found them a bit overwhelming after a while.

Perhaps it’s because I already knew that there was no magic bullet or mysterious “AHA!” moment coming; this isn’t my first foray into Lizzie Borden’s world. Perhaps it’s because so much of litigation is, in fact, repetitive – generally by design. And perhaps it’s the somewhat dry reportage style of the book (which was entirely appropriate – even if I sometimes wanted it to be a little more narrative because of the drama of it all). Regardless, I found it a slower-going read than I thought it would be. Although I never considered putting it down for good, I found myself eager to set it aside after a day’s (sometimes even an afternoon’s) testimony.

And maybe that’s the brilliance of Robertson’s style for this particular courtroom melodrama after all…

She does an incredible job making you feel the weight of it all – the monotony, the heat, the circularity, the odd mixture of old-fashioned social beliefs and legal/criminal methodologies. There were salacious tidbits, sure – but they were buried in a chaotic mess of inconsistencies, questions, fumbling “detective” work and confusion, and Robertson’s presentation made the harsh reality of all of that mess feel palpable. It’s not the easiest or fastest story to read, but as a means of learning about the early days of criminal justice, it’s marvelously informative. And I, for one, enjoyed that.

If you are looking for a book along the lines of the contemporary “true crime” or “courtroom drama” genres, you will be quite surprised – and probably a little disappointed. There are no big reveals here – no plot twists or deus ex machina moments, no twins or fake deaths or last minute witnesses coming out from the woodwork. But there’s tremendous drama inherent in the tale itself, as well as in the mysterious obsession that surrounds it.

I would have liked to see a little more about Lizzie’s post-trial life; that felt a bit rushed and cobbled together, although it is possible it’s because there wasn’t in fact all that much more to say. In an age in which every thought, moment, and action wasn’t memorialized on a screen or device, it is possible that there wasn’t anything much to be found about post-trial Lizzie. My wish for more isn’t a criticism, as such, as much as an observation. I’d be fascinated to have heard more about her – but we never really did hear much directly about Lizzie, even in the trial for her life. She appears to have been intensely private, and the era in which she lived was one in which women (or anyone, really) were not public with their lives.

Without a way to turn back time, we’ll never know what truly happened that fateful day; speculation is rife and there are a host of books (fiction and non-fiction) demonstrating our obsession with that mystery. Robertson offered us a window, but it’s shuttered and screened; courtroom testimony only reveals so much, as does the news reporting of the time. It’s difficult to imagine that now – a time before the “tell-all” or the tearful confessions of any- and everyone even tangentially involved in such a monumental event. Perhaps it’s this sense of possibility that intrigues us so – the idea that we’ll never know, and anything was possible because so many questions were never asked let alone answered. Robertson does a very nice job laying out that ambiguity without ever making it feel overwhelming or obfuscating what we do know.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy. And if you’re interested in Lizzie’s world, visit HERE for a chance to win a trip to Fall River, NY – site of the infamous murders!