Karen - reviewed on 3/15/2010 + 168 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I picked this book up at a resale shop. I thought it might be interesting because I once lived in New England and one of my friends used to spend summers on the Isles of Shoals doing research work. She said that she could not imagine what winters there must be like. The area is rather desolate. Trees don't grow there. The wind is always a factor and it gets so very cold in the winter.
In 1873, two women are found murdered on the island of Smuttynose. A man is accused of their murder. He is hanged - this is the last death sentence carried out in the history of Maine. So the novel is based on some facts with the author's imagination completing the story.
You have to get used to the author's pacing in telling the story. There are actually two stories: the present day story of someone writing about the murders, and the story told in 1873. Anita Shreve switches back and forth from present to past in the same chapter.
I thought the book was well done and very interesting.

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