Despite its chilly title and cover scene, this riveting historical fiction mystery will dig its hooks in no matter the season.
The Frozen River, a New York Times bestseller from author Ariel Lawhon, draws its inspiration from the journals of Martha Ballard, a midwife and healer who blazed a trail in the Maine frontier in the late 1700s.
The novel begins with a death – a man has been found frozen in the icy Kennebec River – and Martha is asked to lend her expertise and examine the body. She suspects murder.
As a trusted community healer in Hallowell, there are plenty who would agree with Martha’s assessment, but others, including judge Joseph North, would not.
Martha’s fly-on-the-wall perspective grants her access to family births, drama, and plenty of secrets. In her diary, she captures everything from the mundane to what turn out to be critical details that will come to shape future events. Martha is strong and challenges stereotypes for what a woman ought to be at the turn of the century. Although her husband and sons value her grit and agency, Judge North and a handful of others aren’t as accepting.
As accusations, intimidation, and unrest fly in the small colonial town in the wake of the murder and its repercussions, Martha and her family must shoulder the effects of her knowledge and position within the community as this whodunnit in fledgling America plays out.
