The Frozen River: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel

When a war is over, you stop discussing the cost, the reality, the blood soaked soil or the grave markers, or the collateral damage. The ways we kill our enemies in order to claim our victory. History is written by the men who live, not the ones who die. In 1700s New England, a woman is sexually assaulted while her husband is away and a man is found dead on the same night. Martha Ballard, the community's midwife, attends to the injuries of the assault vicitm and finds herself in the position of being the only person who can act as a witness to the crime. She works to help prove that the accused is in fact guilty, and in the process uncovers the truth about the murder. This is categorized as a female sleuth mystery, but it is so much more than that. It is a fictionalized account of a real person's life, based on diaries that she kept. Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. It is a portrait of the inequality that women faced in the early years of the United States of America. It is a love story. It is a depiction of the shame and trauma of sexual assault and how a victim's behaviour is affected. It is an exposé of the abuse of power that underlies society. It is a homage to motherhood and childbearing.

Loved this book! Beautifully written, well drawn characters, well researched! I felt as though I was living in 1780's Maine!

10/10, no notes.

Good story; a little contrived and neat.

What I liked: A historical fiction and mystery based on one winter during the life of Martha Ballard, an actual midwife who lived in post-revolutionary war Maine. What I disliked: Considering the extremely religious tight-knit community, there were too many side characters who were either raped or pregnant out of wedlock. Also the town villain was straight out of a melodrama.