A very well researched book! Loved it. It helped me research my own book based on psychopaths so really grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for this!

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I was not able to review this title. I liked the book initially, however it turned out to be something that I could not get into unfortunately. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really do appreciate it.

An enduringly intriguing tale and a masterful telling. Highest praise to Sarah Miller for this compelling book.

Most people are familiar with the story of Lizzie Borden. Mr. and Mrs. Borden were found dead in their home, hacked to death by a sharp weapon and the police’s prime subject was Mr. Borden’s daughter Lizzie. Even more familiar is the jump rope rhyme that beings “Lizzie Borden took an ax”. And yet, it turns out that most of what we know and take as fact isn’t true at all.
The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century takes readers day by day from the murder, through the trial and the trial’s aftermath. Miller relied on primary sources for her research, which allowed her to sort fact from rumor for her readers. I was surprised at how many things I assumed were true about Lizzie and the murders were not true. I really like this about the book.
Mr. and Mrs. Borden’s murders were horribly gruesome. The book keeps the reader’s age in mind and the content is age appropriate. Only one crime scene photograph is included. It is of Mrs. Borden and it is quite tame in comparison to the crime scene photos I have seen of Mr. Borden.
I wish I could say that The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century swayed my convictions one way or another in regards to the role Lizzie played in the murders. The book never claimed to be able to do this, but it is something most people want ‘solid answers’ to. Instead of theories and speculation, Miller gives her reader’s facts. The result is an incredibly human portrayal of Lizzie Borden, something which I think legend and rumor have deprived her of. No matter what her role in the murders were, I felt sorry for her. History hasn’t been kind to Lizzie Borden, but The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century helped remove some of the rumors fogging up Lizzie’s story and presented her as a human being.