Part browsing item, part therapy for the afflicted, this catalog of irrational terrors offers a little help along with a lot of pop psychology and culture. (author’s note, endnotes, bibliography, index) The high-appeal topic will attract many readers, and the suspenseful account will have them trying to solve this still unresolved murder mystery. It’s hard to get a sense of personalities due to lack of reliable information, but the courtroom scenes are vivid and exciting. The detailed narrative separates fact from fiction, discussing and sometimes dismissing rumors and sensational newspaper reports. Frequent sidebars, integrated gracefully into the text, add context.

An initial “Who’s Who” keeps the many players straight, while diagrams and photographs of the Borden house help readers picture the layout. The rest of the chapters chronicle the investigation, hearings, and trial. After a brief prologue, a short section describes the gruesome scenes when the bodies were discovered, followed by an introduction to the Borden family. A conviction would result in the death penalty. She quickly became the prime suspect when Andrew and Abby Borden were bludgeoned to death in the home she shared with them. Lizzie Borden was the 32-year-old daughter of a wealthy but frugal businessman in Fall River, Massachusetts. With an evenhanded approach, the author crafts a gripping story full of well-documented dialogue drawn from legal records.

This true-crime narrative examines the question that mesmerized the nation in 1892: did Lizzie Borden kill her father and stepmother?

One arranged murders book review