Winnie Ruth Judd appears on a train station in Los Angeles with two incredibly heavy chests. The station attendants take them into their office when the chests aren't claimed - but as time ticks on strange substances begin to ooze from them. And the smell! Ruth finally appears with her brother to claim the luggage which contains 'her husband's medical texts and instrument'.

Um. No they don't. Inside are two bodies - one dismembered. Annie Le Roi and 'Sammy' Samuelson.

The Murderess is based on the true story of Winnie Ruth Judd, but the author is clear in stating it is a work of fiction. She has used the materials available about the murder case to fabric a narrative of what might have happened.

Ruth is married to 'Doctor' - as she calls her husband - and has spent much of her early years in Mexico with him. He is an opium addict - most probably suffering from PTSD - and they have to continually move as he lapses in and out of addiction. Ruth herself also suffers from TB and spends some time in hospital.

After escaping the revolution in Mexico, it is decided that Ruth should spend some time in a more arid climate and she finds herself in Phoenix, Arizona. Here she gets a job at a medical clinic where she meets Annie and Sammy and quickly forms a fast friendship with them.

However, she is wooed by a DODGY character - O'Halloran - who takes her down a dangerous road of drinking and drugs. Ending in the murder of her two best friends.

The novel is written both in third person narrative and from Ruth's point of view. We travel with her as she tries to evade police and throughout her time in the Arizona State Hospital for the Insane where she is incarcerated after being found insane. She escapes five times, she opens a beauty salon at the hospital that becomes famous throughout Phoenix, she helps raise the children of the addicts and prostitutes who are spending time inside with her.

But what is very clear is the Ruth is very ill. In the years to come she is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Whilst the story is interesting, the emphasis on Ruth's mental health seems to be overlooked. We know that she 'believes' she has given birth to a child who is taken from her and obviously has a psychotic break when she commits the murders (her guilt is never in question), but the impact this has had on her life is not given the attention it should. I think the author has been torn between writing a true crime book, and writing a piece of fiction.

Don't get me wrong - it was a fine read. And it did make me go and look up the case. But I lost interest about half-way through.

The story opens with a bang: bags are offloaded from a train and the porters are keen to find the owner, as they smell awful and are leaking a rather disconcerting fluid. Winnie Ruth Judd (who goes by Ruth throughout the story) arrives with her brother to claim them, but when the porters insist on opening them, she claims not to have the key and bolts. Once the trunks and satchel are opened, the grisly contents are displayed: two human bodies, one dismembered to fit better. Thus kicks off a manhunt, and a search into who the deceased women are, and what, exactly, happened.

The writing in the beginning is very descriptive and easily lured me in. I just wanted to keep reading! The chapters shift perspective, weaving between Ruth and Anne and Sammy (the victims) as well as settling over Jack Halloran briefly and even going third person. It’s historical fiction—it opens October 19, 1931–and it also uses snippets from real news articles and letters to pad out the text in places.

The characters are certainly flawed; it seemed like almost everyone in the book drank and did copious amounts of drugs. I found it easier to be more sympathetic toward Ruth's husband "Doctor" for his drug addiction given he was injured in the war rather than when she spiralled. I don’t know how to feel about the murders; even if Sammy and Anne behaved poorly, nothing can justify killing them and chopping Sammy up like meat.

Either way, it was an interesting book, and a gripping one. Really puts about all the negative tendencies of humanity on display and shows just how violent and reactive people can be when they feel wronged. Kind of wild to think how infamous this must have been at the time but how it’s since mostly faded away from the public consciousness.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my…what a story! A murder mystery that may not really be a mystery. It starts with a lovely young woman in a train station with some really heavy trunks that are leaking some strange liquid and have a nauseating stink. The mutilated bodies of 2 women are found in those trunks and the obvious suspect is Winnie Ruth Judd, that same young woman. But how could she possibly have done what she was accused of? She simply didn’t have the strength, or the skill. And then there was her husband, a doctor. Maybe he did it Maybe her brother, who picked her up at the train station? The book starts with a bang, and then we hear the story from Ruth herself, from papers she wrote. But there are more questions than answers.

Reading The Murderess feels like reading a true crime story; the truth is stranger than fiction, and the obvious might not really be the right answer. Ruth is such a sympathetic character, she couldn’t possibly be a murderess, could she? I couldn’t put this book down. You shouldn’t miss it either!

Winnie Ruth Judd, a 26-year-old medical secretary, wife to Dr. William Judd and infamous murderess of the title, is the subject of Notaro’s novel examining the circumstances of two gruesome killings which took place in 1931. Both victims were Ruth’s best and only friends. Since there is no question of guilt here, the novel seeks to discover what might have happened between Ruth arriving in Phoenix and working at the same clinic as X-ray technician Anne Le Roi and subsequently meeting the seriously consumptive Hedvig ‘Sammy’ Samuelson, for whom Anne was a live-in carer and more. Young and often bedridden, Sammy craved company – perhaps all three women did while doing their best to survive the Depression. Having met lumberman Jack Hollman and beginning an on/off affair despite being married, Ruth introduced her girlfriends to the social high-flyer. Things escalated into jealousy, which Anne immaturely perpetuated. Ruth didn’t deny having killed both her friends and claimed self-defense.

The first section is procedurally tidy in its graphic description of the factual record, and Notaro’s expertise shines best in the neutral tone with which she breathes new life into an old story which relates events from inside Ruth’s head. We watch and surmise through Ruth’s eyes with enough detail to wonder if she was given a fair trial. Certainly, she suffered from delusions and mental health issues which followed her all her life. But the 1930s were different times, the story is a curious one, and Ruth’s husband’s behaviour is odd. The novel left me wondering whether a physically tiny young woman could have committed the heinous crimes she was accused of. An impressive biographical crime novel, well worth reading, in which I was encouraged to empathise, but not moved towards pity and exoneration. Ruth Judd undoubtedly needed help she didn’t get.

A scintillating blend of true crime and historical. I found this a compulsive read and enjoyed how the author had clearly done their research, yet wore in lightly. Extremely gripping – recommend!

The first pages drew me right in. What an intro!started to drag near the middle for me but overall I enjoyed it

This book is a good one if you like an unreliable narrator and true crime without a firm resolution. This story was something else. At times the narrative is hard to believe. At other times I felt a twinge of sympathy for Judd. I wonder what her like would have been like if she'd been born 75 years later.

Overall, it left me with too many questions / unknowns and I didn't understand how the epilogue was supposed to help resolve anything. Is she insane? Is she on drugs? Was she manipulated?

I will always love Laurie Notaro most for her non-fiction memoirs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little A for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Great book by one of my favorite authors. The history of Winnie Ruth Judd presented in this book is well researched and fascinating.

Well researched and highly captivating! I would recommend to anyone who enjoys true crime and historical fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little A for the eARC.

I was so intrigued by the premise of a fictionalized retelling of a true story. The novel took me a bit to get into, but was an enjoyable read once it got going!

The Murderess tells a fictionalized story of a true crime which took place in Phoenix in 1931. Ruth Judd travels from Phoenix to Los Angeles with two trunks and baggage containing two bodies and body parts. Along the way, blood and body fluids are leaking everywhere. It is the decomposition odor that brings attention to officials when she disembarks in Los Angeles. The resourceful Ruth goes on the run, hiding in a department store and making her way to La Vina, the tuberculosis sanitorium where she lived previously, then eventually forced to turn herself in. Newspaper articles carry the sensational details that are presumed regarding the murders, the victims, and Ruth’s involvement. Gradually Ruth’s life growing up in a small Indiana town and events leading up to the murders are revealed. But Ruth gives different accounts of motive and details of the murders to her husband, Doctor, others, and the reader.
Through Ruth’s narration, it is evident that we are not getting the complete, truthful story. Once I was able to piece together ‘facts’, I realized that Ruth suffers from some form of mental illness, and Doctor, who can’t keep a job and in treatment much of their married life, is a drug addict – which as a doctor, narcotics are easily accessed. He is much older than Ruth. They are two damaged souls who found each other and live sad, desperate lives. They moved around a lot to give Doctor repeated fresh starts, living in Mexico and California. We also learn of the victims, her best friends Sammy and Anne; and Jack, her lover while living on her own in Phoenix.
I had difficulty getting into the book because of the writing. Notaro is a journalist and, in my experience, those skills don’t transfer well to novel writing. Sentences are disjointed and don’t flow smoothly. I often had to reread to figure out the subject of a sentence. I adjusted to this ‘reporting’ style and the story took over because it was so engaging and fascinating. And I do believe the writing improved some as I read on. Notaro very skillfully dropped clues and revealed details at just the right time, which made this an exceptional book.

It was a slow, but fascinating read maid more so by the fact that it is based on a true story. It had a strong beginning and then towards the end the book sort of fizzles out. I guess you can't change history.

The Murderess is an engaging read based on a true story about a crime that has never been sufficiently explained. Ms. Notaro gives the reader a thorough view of what was life in the 20's/30's and all difficulties women had to face besides war, poverty, and lung diseases. Ruth never had a clear definition of what she wanted in life, she marries an older man (with a drug addiction), leaves a religious and strict family, has to fight for her life and that of her husband when leaving Mexico, finds a life in her own terms in Phoenix where the tragedy happens. She was a victim as well as a killer, had her own drugg addictions, a delusional mind that did not help her, and "friends" that were not really looking out for her. A tragedy that was built step by step till the end. A trial that was a spectacle and was only saved by her own acting and that of a lawyer and a judge. Once you start reading "The Murderess" you won't be able to stop!
I thank Ms. Notaro, her publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little A for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own

Book Tagline: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurie Notaro comes a haunting true-crime novel about Winnie Ruth Judd, one of the twentieth century’s most notorious and enigmatic killers.

It was a slow start but I am so glad I stuck with this real-life story set in the United States during the Depression-era. Narrated by multiple characters, Laurie Notaro gives readers a glimpse into the circumstances that led Winnie Ruth Judd to commit such brutal murders. I believe the author's background in writing nonfiction adds to a historical fiction that is more thorough in presenting the backstory of several major players, including the victims. What surprised me the most was how much empathy the author was able to bring out in me. Given the subject matter, I wasn't expecting to feel sympathy for a woman who declared simply "I was justified."

Highly recommended for historical fiction and true crime fans.



#TheMurderess #NetGalley
Publication Date 08/10/24
Goodreads Review 14/10/24

The Murderess is a harrowing and complex story set in Depression-era Los Angeles.
Ruth Judd,a doctor’s wife has just arrived at the train station from Arizona,and as she tries to pick up her two pieces of luggage, she is stopped by the porters - who, alarmed by a horrific smell emanating from them,open them up to reveal the dismembered body parts of two women. Just as the police arrive,Ruth narrowly escapes and goes on the run.
As the story unfolds, it skillfully navigates multiple perspectives,intricately intertwining the experiences, which kept me captivated and on the edge of my seat.

The author does an amazing job of immersing us in the past with rich, evocative detail, bringing the era to life,as well as diving into Ruth’s personality and mental health in the lead up to the murders. Moreover, Notaro expertly presents both sides of the story, allowing readers to understand the complexities of Ruths motivations and challenges.
I really felt sympathy for her, as horrific as the crime was, and to my surprise I found out this was based on a true crime!
This book is a very thought-provoking and engaging read, highly recommended for anyone who loves true crime. Its intricate narrative and compelling character dynamics make it a standout that will spark discussion and reflection.

A fictionalized account of a true crime, THE MURDERESS, is an awesome read. I actually looked up the original crime to see how much of the book is fiction. Laurie Notaro stuck close to the nonfictional crime reports, filling in the gaps of a crime that has never been completely solved even though Winnie Ruth Judd was convicted and given the death penalty for the murder of Anne Leroi. Notaro obviously spent a great deal of time and effort researching the details of the crime that came to be known as The Trunk Murders. Notaro's writing elevated what could easily have become a rote telling of crime to a fascinating look at how so many different people and events would come to bear on the trial. Even the jurors would play a part in the story. I'd recommend this book to any true crime buff but also to anyone who enjoys a crime novel that has so many players, it is hard to keep up with who is NOT guility of something. 5 easy stars.

Slow to start for me, felt a bit difficult to get into, but worth the patience as it does become addictive. To feel inside the mind of a murderess and her sanity and maybe your own just a little bit, the author does an incredible job putting you there. How I found compassion for this main “character” is beyond me. “It (I) was justified” haunts my thoughts. You are transported to the 1920’s and 30’s, your lungs feel like they can’t breathe from the strong prevalence of tuberculosis, you feel the heat of the desert and the inability to get cool, you worry about money but have difficulty comprehending the cost of living and wages at that time. I had never heard of this very real woman named Winnie Ruth Judd, and this book and author opened my eyes to her fictional world, steeped in so much reality. I definitely recommend this book!

True Crime fiction is a genre that is not often on my radar, but the premise of Laurie Notaro's "The Murderess" intrigued me and thus I offer this review in exchange for an advanced copy.

As I began this reading journey, I did find myself having interest in the years following the Great Depression that it depicted in detail, as well as the struggles that women in that time period had to overcome to live authentic, independent lives on their own terms. But note that I did not mention a focus on what should have been the central appeal. That being the sensational, horrific double murder comitted by a woman of much mystery.

As presented, Winnie Ruth Judd, the titular murderess, is at once seemingly high-strung, flighty, and histrionic, while also being calculating and self-aware. Often she is portrayed as mysterious, lost, and misunderstood. Quite late in the narrative is she presented as seriously mentally ill. Over arching this small woman who, for a time, had a hefty impact on people around her, is a whole cast of characters with questionable and primarily unresolved motives that may (or may not!) have had an influence. From sensational beginning to lackluster end, the reader gains very little insight into this headline grabbing murderous event.

The Murderess on October in 1931 a passenger travel from Phoenix to LA train with two larger truck thought out the train red liquids come out of the track people are assured smuggled deer this happen alside the Great Depression we meet are character Ruth Judd who owns the truck saying they are medical book in the truck and she was delivering to her husband told her to open the truck: she doesn’t have the key. While open the truck there are two woman bodies that have be shot and cut up to fit in the truck. While reading this story I fell down a massive rabbit hole also I felt that a lot of the things Laurie Notaro changes didn’t quite make sense to me. The story is writing in three parts it took me a while to really get into the story from jump into a lot of different pov. This book is dark and disturbing of trying to figure out how a women like Ruth Judd become murdered her two best friends. This book also follow mental health problems in a way Judd is a unreliable narrator.

Thank you Netgalley and Little A New York

An interesting narrative take on a shocking case. The author's access to source material allowed her to write a story that shows a complicated picture of a very complicated individual in Winnie Ruth Judd, her relationships, and a story that would be national headlines in any era it happened in. There is a LOT of tragedy in this story, and it's not always easy to read, but it's required reading for those interested in historical true crime.