Australian author Sarah Schmidt’s debut is a clever, gritty, vision of one of the most infamous unsolved crimes of history, beginning on the morning of the murder, when Lizzie calls the maid, telling her:

“Someone’s killed Father”.

These things are true:

Lizzie Borden was born 19 July 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts, she lived and died in that same town. Lizzie Andrew Borden, her full name, was tried and acquitted in 1892 for the murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, the location of the murders was the home that they shared. The main characters in ”See What I Have Done” were the actual people in and out of the home, Lizzie’s older sister, Emma, her father Andrew, her stepmother Abby, Bridget is the maid, whose only dream is to return to her family in Ireland. John, Emma and Lizzie’s Uncle who is their mother’s – the first Mrs. Borden - brother.

Schmidt excels at making you want to really understand Lizzie Borden, get under her skin, making you want to figure out who she is, and if she’s done what the famous folk rhyme says she’s done, showing you so many possible diverse sides to this story.

For those of you who didn’t skip rope to this chant:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Yes, really. Up there with “Ring around the Rosie” and it’s rumoured background of it being about the Plague.

Told from different perspectives – Schmidt delivers a rather cryptic, strange, and disturbed peek into the thoughts of Lizzie, but no one is left to appear innocent. While the act itself is a fact, there remains the obvious who-done-it question.

The narrators include Emma and Lizzie, daughters of Sarah Anthony (Morse) Borden, the first Mrs. Borden, Bridget, the (Irish) family maid, and Benjamin, a man hired by Uncle John, an “outsider.”

A wonderful debut novel, this is a captivating, spellbinding and, at times, unsettling read. For me, exceptionally disquieting moments were when I was reading Lizzie’s thoughts, dark and disturbed one moment and filled with a childlike admiration and love the next – but always relayed in this childlike voice, as though she’s forever trapped in childhood. Lizzie is also a fairly fragmented, unreliable narrator, but then again, I wasn’t counting on her for an accurate retelling. Emma has her own unique view on life and her desire to shield of Lizzie, Lizzie was so young when their mother died and Emma feels responsible for Lizzie. Bridget stands out as voice of reason, contributing her the “behind the scenes” portrait of this uniquely different household in her levelheaded way, but as a maid her voice is quieted to almost a whisper. Benjamin has more than enough troubles of his own and Uncle John owes him, but he fills in his views.

I’m not sure how one would write a novel on this without including some gruesome details, but all things considered they are fairly minimal – although I would caution against eating while reading this for those with sensitive tummies. For those disturbed by this dark tale, I would recommend a dose of the Chad Mitchell Trio’s “Lizzie Borden” which I believe is only found on YouTube (unless you happen to have an old 45 of this), a much lighter take on Lizzie’s tale … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wlO-... which I found only because I was curious if there was ever a song in addition to the folk rhyme chant.

Recommended – with a cautionary twist

Pub Date: 01 Aug 2017


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic / Atlantic Monthly Press

I love true crime and suspense books. Lizzie Borden's story has always intrigued me. This is a fictionalized version of one of the most talked about murder mysteries of the 19th/20th centuries.

After reading this book, I'm now of the belief that maybe Uncle John Morse, Lizzie's mother was the killer. He hadn't seen his ex brother in law in years and shows up the night before he and his new wife are murdered.

We may never know who killed Lizzie's father, Andrew and her stepmother, Abby but one thing for sure I do know, this was a chilling and well written book.

This book is told through the voices of Emma, Lizzie's sister and Lizzie herself.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. Wow, this book will definitely win creepiest read of 2017. The Lizzie Borden murders have been a source of fascination for me, and the author took history and breathed life into it. I could almost smell every smell, taste every taste, feel the heat of the Borden home, every description of the author's was just that good. Very very good (and again, creepy) read.

I wish I knew more of the actual history so I could compare the narratives. As it's still a bit of a mystery, I guess that's just not going to happen. As it was, this was an interesting, if gruesome story. The was the tale was unwound was very well done and made me curious to learn more.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

On the 4 August 1892 Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby, were brutally murdered in their home at 92 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts and Andrew’s daughter, Lizzie, was charged with the murders. She was tried and was acquitted in June 1893 and speculation about the murders and whether Lizzie was guilty or not continues to the present day. See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt is a work of fiction based on true events using various resources.

Lizzie was thirty two at the time of the murders but in this fictionalised account she seems emotionally much younger, more like a teenager than a mature woman.

The narrative is shared by Lizzie, her sister Emma, Bridget their maid and Benjamin, a ‘friend’ of Lizzie’s Uncle John, and moves backwards and forwards in time, before and after 4 August 1892. Lizzie’s account is the strangest and it takes you right inside her mind. She is a disturbed and unstable character to say the least and I had the most unsettling feeling as I read that I was right inside her crazy, demented mind.

The writing is ambiguous in parts, lending enough credence to cast doubt on Lizzie’s guilt – and then in other parts I was convinced that she had committed the murders. It’s the introduction of Benjamin, a fictional character, a vicious and violent man, that provides an explanation of what happened to the murder weapon, that the police were unable to find.

Sarah Schmidt’s prose highlights the senses – the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes are aroused. The tension is palpable, and the fear and feverish atmosphere in the Borden’s house comes to a climax in the gruesome murders. It is indeed eerie and compelling, a mesmerising book.

The Borden murders: a story we all think we know. This amazing story takes us in to the household and lets us hear the thoughts of all those invlolved in the fateful day. Some charachter's are familiar to us, others are new to this compelling tale.

Meet the Borden family. They reside at 92 Second Street, Fall River , Massachusetts.
Andrew, head of the household, is married to his second wife Abby, stepmother to his two daughters Emma and Lizzie.
On the exterior they seem your normal, average family but take a closer look and all is not what it seems.
Emma, the eldest sister is desperate to escape the confines of the family dynamics, always the one to look after younger sister, Lizzie, acquiescing to her every whim and demand just for a quiet life.
Lizzie, the longed for second child, is spoilt, and demanding, an undercurrent of something dark just bubbling below the surface.
When on August 4th 1892, Lizzie discovers her father murdered in the sitting room, and stepmother Abby dead in the guest room, the family and Lizzie are thrown into the spotlight.
It soon becomes apparent that Lizzie is the primary suspect, but did she do it, was she capable of two such horrific murders???
Using Lizzie and Emma, the maid, Bridget and petty criminal Benjamin, each potential suspects, Schmidt relates the events leading up to the murders. Each has a grievance against Andrew and Abby, their own reason why murder might benefit them.
Each character is meticulously drawn but it is LIzzie's character that stands out. Schmidt portrays her as somewhat contradictory, the deeply religious Sunday school teacher opposes the dark simmering hatred she feels for stepmother Abby, and her Father, her selfish need to be center of attention, to have everything her way. Schmidt forces us to question her innocence and I for one am convinced that she was more than capable of committing the murders.
I could not help but feel sorry for Emma, the dutiful daughter, the ever present sister bending to Lizzie's will yet desperate to escape, to live her own life away from the tensions of the household.
The imagery conjured up by Schmidt;'s writing was sublime. The mutton broth will be forever etched on my brain and at times I could even smell its rancid aroma!
Yes, this novel is about the infamous Borden murders and yes, it forces us to question who did it, but for me it was more about the characters, and its chilling portrait of a dysfunctional family just waiting to implode.
It is a novel that shall be imprinted in my mind for some time to come and definitely my novel of the year so far.

"Lizzie Borden took an axe..." or did she? That's the premise of this good, but creepy story. As wacky as this novel portrays her family perhaps they needed whacked. And the ending is just right -- satisfying and strange and perfect in tone.

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
On 4 August 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their own home where they lived with Andrew’s daughters Lizzie and Emma and their housemaid Bridget. Lizzie was put on trial for their murder but was exonerated of the crime at her trial three months later.
Sarah Schmidt has recreated the scene on the morning of the murder, and in the months leading up to it using four different narrators: Lizzie, Bridget, Emma and the mystery character Benjamin. These four give us different views of a household which was undoubtedly full of tension with Lizzie and Emma only deigning to call Abby, Mrs Borden.
The thing that struck me most was how young Lizzie’s character seemed to be. The voice is actually a woman in her thirties, unmarried in an age where that was unusual, but she sounds far more like a petulant child. This just adds to the weird atmosphere recreated by Sarah Schmidt with many references to smells and tastes, particularly of the mutton stew which was endlessly reheated. Was this the cause of the sickness that all the members of the household, bar Lizzie were afflicted with? Or was the cause something more sinister? The stickiness of the day, the juiciness of the endless pears that were consumed from the arbour and the meticulous locking of the doors even during the daytime all add to the feeling of claustrophobia that set this household in Fall River, Massachusetts from the rest of the world.
All the best known details of the investigation into the brutal slaying of Mr and Mrs Borden are included, some in the present day narrative which runs throughout the book, some in the flashbacks that give the background to past conflicts that are still running, no doubt because the two daughters should have left long ago. We are given some insight as to why Emma stayed, which was due to the unnaturally symbiotic relationship with Lizzie, but no clue was offered as to why none of the local men had asked for Lizzie’s hand in marriage.
The style of writing took a little while to acclimatise to, but once I got into the stride of the book I was eager to see what theories as to what happened on that fateful day the author would propose and I’m glad to say that no single theory held sway over another, with Sarah Schmidt giving the reader the chance to come to their own conclusions based on the evidence produced.
I have to admit I only really sympathised with one of the characters who narrates this story and that was Bridget, the Irish housemaid who crossed the ocean for a better life and has been saving money to return home to her family but maybe that was because she had the most ‘normal’ of voices. Andrew is presented through the eyes of all of the characters as a harsh father and Abby as a spiteful and bitter step-mother. The undercurrents of distrust and outright hostility are then thrown into focus by the appearance of John Morse, the brother of the Sarah, Andrew Borden's first wife and mother to Emma and Lizzie. In some ways by the time I completed the book, whoever the murderer was, the deaths seem almost inevitable.
In conclusion See What I Have Done is an unusual and fascinating read, but far from a comfortably one; the writing so vivid I feared sensory overload and as a result I foretell a pearless future for this reader!

“He was still bleeding.” I yelled, “Someone’s killed Father"

Everyone knows the story, or at least the song: “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.” On August 4, 1892 in Fall River Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden was charged with murdering her father and step-mother with an axe. Lizzie was later acquitted of the murder, despite the majority of people believing she was guilty, because basically it was thought that women could not be capable of committing such a brutal act. Narrated from many perspectives, this debut novel explores the story of the family leading up to the murders and the idea of whether or not Lizzie did indeed commit the murders.

Toying with the idea that Lizzie was spoiled and functioning at a child-like capacity (it was easy to forget that she is actually a grown woman), the novel reflects on how her sister Emma has been trying to escape the family home and getaway from Lizzie since the passing of their mother. Their overbearing father, Andrew, always favoured Lizzie and did little to spare Emma any responsibilities after the passing of their mother, even though he has since married a plump woman named Abby. The home was tense and unhappy. Even the maid, Bridget, is saving every spare coin she had to getaway from the argumentative and strange family. However trouble is brewing on the horizon and someone has it in for Andrew Borden. With an intense climax and twisted ending, this book will not fail inquisitive minds.

Schmidt is the queen of acute and sensory descriptions. There are few books that can describe blood and vomit in such an uncanny way. If you are at all squeamish, this book may be a bit unsettling for you but don’t let that stop you. I promise it is worth it. The book is intensely visual and the author has an immense talent in bringing her words alive. The characters, especially Lizzie, are curious, disruptive, complicated and disturbing and the plot adds a new twist to an old story.

I expect to see a lot from this author in the future as this novel is a killer debut! Ha, see what I did there? Bad joke… yeah. Anyway! If you are at all interested in true-crime, historical-fiction, murder, or just curious characters with great visuals then add this book to your to-read list ASAP and pick up a copy this summer when it comes out in August.

We know the macabre story. We've heard the bloody rhyme. We know that Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks. Or did she? Sarah Schmidt's engaging debut novel follows Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the Irish maid Bridget, and a mysterious outsider named Benjamin in the days leading up to the murders, reimagining the stifling Borden household in intoxicating detail. Rich in atmosphere and unforgiving in its emotional punch, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE is a visceral, claustrophobic dive into a household infected with secrets, dependency, and obsession, and the violence that it breeds.

A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and Atlantic Monthly Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one

Or did she?

I'm not going to lie, I kept putting this one down. The opening chapter narrated by Lizzie was well-written with a nice hook, and then the second chapter narrated by her sister Emma threw me off. However, I limped through it, and then a few more chapters here and there, and then I couldn't put it down. This book was well-written and captivating, especially for a debut, and I would definitely recommend it.

In See What I Have Done, Schmidt takes on the daunting genre of historical fiction with her account of one of the most famous murder cases of all time with. Lizzie Borden's father and step-mother are found bludgeoned to death at the Borden residence. Told from multiple perspectives, the reader goes inside the mind of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the Irish maid Bridget, and a mysterious stranger Benjamin who has ties to the family. This multiperspectivity works brilliantly and while I enjoyed Lizzie's chapters the most, the other perspectives were needed to balance out the story.

Schmidt juxtaposes the visual imagery of sickness—blood, vomit, rotting food—against the relationships of the family. This is more than fiction, it is a foray into the human psyche and a study of the most intimate kind of relationships.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that there are very few books that I absolutely cannot finish… even if it pretty much stinks, I still have to know what happens in the end. That being said, I can add this one to that list. I just couldn’t make myself. I tried… really. I did, however, skip to the final chapter so I kind of finished… not really, but kind of.

I was intrigued by the cover and quite excited to read the book after reading the synopsis. I love historical fiction especially that which is centered on fact as this book is. I just could not get past the author’s writing style. I could not focus on the story (it jumped around) and struggled to really follow it. I am giving it two stars. The inclusion of the time line at the end was a plus.

All I knew about Lizzie Borden before reading this book was the folk rhyme about her giving her father forty whacks with an axe! Sarah Schmidt's book reads like the very best whodunit building up the tension leading up to the murders.
The story is told from the perspective of several characters, Lizzie herself, her sister Emma, the maid Bridget and a man called Benjamin who has been asked by the brother of the first Mrs Borden to give Andrew Borden, the father, a bit of a fright.
Andrew is a miserable man, parsimonious and cantankerous he treats his daughters, wife and maid awfully ruling the roost. They seem to eat a lot of mutton broth which is left simmering on the stove for days on end, no wonder sickness is rife in the house. As the story progresses narrated by the various people in the house we learn that they all have a motive for killing Andrew. Abby Borden is the unliked step-mother of Emma and Lizzie but she also gives Bridget a motive to kill her.
The book is so visceral you can almost smell the blood which is splattered liberally throughout and described in stomach turning terms!
Sarah Schmidt leaves you knowing who she thinks perpetrated the murders which were never solved.

Oh gosh, I really can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Really well written, on the edge of your seat stuff, despite this being a well known try event. Read it!

So, I decided to read See What I Have Done after another reviewer remarked how unsettled it left her. It was said in such a way that it was clear that she was recommending it.

Since it was about Lizzie Borden, always a favorite subject matter, I was anxious to read it for myself.

The book is definitely unsettling – mostly because of three characters: Lizzie, her uncle John, and a mysterious man hired by John. The other two characters, Lizzie’s sister and maid, did add to the background of the story but I simply didn’t find them all that interesting.

Using these five point of view characters, the author paints a disturbing picture of the murders and of the circumstances surrounding them. The author teases out salacious secrets which hint at the fact that dark things may have been happening in the Borden family prior to the murders.

Did I like the book?

Not really. Although I appreciated the way the author dangled little bits and pieces of fact and gossip in front of the reader, and though I did dearly appreciate Lizzie’s character (strange as she was), I found the storytelling heavy, two of our more suspicious characters almost cartoon-villain (I just needed to read about them twisting their mustaches and laughing maniacally), and found both Emma and Bridget to be uninteresting.

I found that I was simply reading to see if, in fact, the author was going to tell us that Lizzie committed the crime. (I won’t tell you that answer.)

For me, three stars. Although I appreciated the atmosphere the author built, she lost my interest through much of the book.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! I had heard a lot of buzz about See What I Have Done, and the cover is so beautiful and eye-catching, I knew I had to read it. While I liked this book, I didn't love it. I found the story somewhat tedious; however, I think the biggest obstacle for me was the fact that I never felt a connection to any of the characters. I don't have to like them, I just have to feel some strong emotion, and I didn't here. I would recommend this book to my library patrons who love true crime though. The idea of fictionalizing the murders of Lizzie's parents is a unique twist, and I can see the appeal.

Am interesting read, however I struggled to believe the characters were portrayed the way they should have been. I had never heard of the Borden murders so this was a whole new story and I thought Lizzie was a child, her thinking and portrayal was that of a child however, I learnt that Lizzie was in fact a grown woman.I think this may have possibly been the authors intention but I felt it detracted from the character and I struggled to have a relationship with them, especially Lizzie.