I recommend Ella Maud by Nicholas Nicastro. I really liked it.
About:
" A beautiful girl of 19 disappears from her home after bidding a fateful goodnight to her sweetheart. She is found dead in the Pasquotank River 36 days later. He is convicted TWICE for her murder – but is innocent. So what really happened...?
Ella Maud Cropsey, known to her friends and family as Nell, was born in July 1882 in Brooklyn, New York, before the family moved to Elizabeth City in North Carolina. Nell starts seeing Jim Wilcox, son of the local sheriff. They are an odd couple: Nell is beautiful, independent and eager for new experiences; Jim is short, stolid and five years older than Nell, but content with his lot.
On the night of November 20, 1901, Jim and other guests are there, calling on Nell, her sister Ollie, and their brother, William. Around 11 p.m., Jim rises and bids the group good-bye, then asks Nell to accompany him to the porch. A few minutes later, Ollie’s suitor Roy Crawford is asked to tell Nell to come inside as he leaves. Moments later, Roy calls back softly that Nell is not on the porch...
In Ella Maud, Nicholas Nicastro revisits a haunting mystery that still fascinates a nation a century later. His masterly re-imagining of these tragic events sees beyond the prejudices that destroys families and taints small communities but corrodes civilization itself. Nicastro’s simple story-telling style, with its kaleidoscopic perspectives, is moving, beautiful and profound. He echoes the footfall of greats like Herman Melville, William Saroyan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Louisa M. Alcott, Harper Lee and Alice Walker. A massive achievement."
I love the cover of the book. So mysterious and ghostly.
The author does an excellent job of telling the story of this true unsolved crime and providing a possible solution based on statements and speculations of Nell's (Ella) disappearance. It is a tale of a family, sibling rivalry, teenagers, sisters, parents of teenagers and a tragedy. The story grabbed me right away and I raced through it. We get glimpses of what may have happened which is very intriguing and suspenseful. It is also a sad story. Nell is not the only victim. I then looked up the actual account of the story and found it very interesting. The book is written based on the facts that were known. But there are still a lot of unknowns.
What do you think happened?
(I received a free copy and voluntarily provided this review
This sounds like a masterful retelling of this true crime, Gayle. Thank you for your review. Have you read The Water Doctor's Daughters? It's an account of true crime in Victorian England written by my neighbour Pauline Conolly who's a mad researcher and beautiful writer. I've reviewed it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R6JOBDL3FXESL/
ReplyDeleteOooh. Thanks Virginia. I am going to look it up.
DeleteThis one sounds really fascinating, Gayle. I'm really liking books based on true crimes. I'm not so much about reading actual true crime books. Will keep this one in mind. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat is different about this, is no one knows what the real crime is. Nell was missing for 37 days, then found in the lake, but it didn't appear she had been there for 37 days. Since it was late 1800's, they couldn't come to a conclusive decision about her death. There were an inordinate amount of ice deliveries to the family...They did send someone to prison but probably wouldn't have happened in today's world.
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