Miss Lizzie

I read this book nearly 20 years ago — so long ago that I read it on cassette tapes from my public library! I loved it then, but I had forgotten nearly all of the details, including who the murderer was.

It would be too easy to spoil this book, so I won’t go into the backstory at all. (You can read the book blurb.) But I loved this novel all over again: the humor, the knowledge of human nature and failings, the re-creation of a patrician world that was already disappearing in 1922, the depiction of two amazing, courageous, clever heroines, Lizzie Border and Amanda Burton. But more amazing is the lyrical prose that readers don’t expect from mystery novels. I wish I could give this book six stars on this second reading!

First Line: The days were longer then, in that long-ago summer at the shore, and the air was softer, and the sunlight more golden as it winked and wobbled off a bluer sea.

It is 1921 and Prohibition has just begun. Thirteen-year-old Amanda Burton is staying with her father, stepmother and older brother in a house along the Massachusetts coast.

Amanda finds out their next-door neighbor is the notorious Lizzie Borden, the woman who was acquitted of taking a hatchet and cutting her father and stepmother to pieces. Amanda meets Lizzie, and they become friends-- meeting almost every day so Lizzie can teach the young girl card tricks.

Amanda and her brother loathe their stepmother, and when Amanda wakes up on the hottest day of the summer to show more find the woman hacked to bits in a bedroom in their house, suspicion falls squarely on the shoulders of neighbor Lizzie. Amanda doesn't believe that Lizzie did it (she doesn't believe Lizzie killed her parents either), and with Miss Lizzie taking the initiative to hire both a lawyer and a Pinkerton detective, the unlikely pair sets out to find the real killer. Their investigation uncovers a nest of secrets. All they have to do is find the guardian who's willing to kill to keep his--or her-- secrets hidden.

Satterthwait's writing style captured me from the first paragraph, and another scene set in the fog actually had the hair standing on the back of my neck. The story is told by a much older Amanda who seems very nostalgic for the innocence she had during those days. As the story progresses and suspicion shifts from one person to another, the reader can easily begin to doubt all the characters-- even Amanda herself.

Satterthwait's poetic style brings the era to life in a swiftly moving plot that shifts nimbly through the fog of secrets and suspicions until the reader is deliciously lost. Amanda and Miss Lizzie are now one of my favorite detective duos, and I have more of the author's books on their way to my doorstep. show less

Everyone remembers the rhyme about Lizzie Borden giving her parents a certain number of whacks. Everyone also knows she was found not guilty. But! She wasn't found innocent either. So what happens when, thirty years later, another parent is found murdered in the exact same way and Lizzie just happens to be the neighbor living right next door? Coincidence? Amanda Burden is a teenager of thirteen and has befriended Miss Borden who has lived alone all this time. This is Amanda's story.
Satterthwait keeps the tension tight in this clever whodunit. Amanda believes in Miss Lizzie's innocence and yet Satterthwait is careful to leave a little room for doubt.
There were several things I found unusual about this plot. For starters, Amanda is, as I show more said, only thirteen years old and yet her father leaves Amanda with Miss Lizzie while he conducts business (and an affair) in Boston. Amanda has been keeping her friendship with Miss Lizzie a secret, so how or why would Mr. Burden trust his only daughter to the care of a woman who may or may not have murdered her parents? I don't think it ruins the plot to say that I was even further confused when it was revealed Amanda's father left his daughter to be the one to discover her stepmother's body hacked to death. show less

An excellent fictionalized account of what happened to Lizzie Borden after the notorious trial. On one level, it's a bittersweet story of an unlikely friendship between a shunned old woman and a child, and, on another level, it's a compelling tale of a suspenseful summer. The sly ending will surprise you!

Whether you've read a lot about Lizzie Borden or nothing, you'll really like this finely crafted mystery.

This is a fantastic murder mystery based on the idea of what Lizzie Borden's doing thirty years after supposedly killing her parents. 13-year-old Amanda's stepmother has been murdered with a hatchet, and now Amanda's neighbor and friend Miss Lizzie is the prime suspect. This is a great fast-paced mystery with intriguing characters; it made me want to explore Lizzie Borden's history.

Entertaining tale of Lizzie Borden in her later years.

13-year-old Amanda is fascinated when she learns that Miss Lizzie next door is THAT Lizzie. And when Amanda's step-mother is murdered, with an ax, the elderly Miss Lizzie is the automatic suspect. Together Amanda and her new friend set out to find the real killer, and discover a possible connection to the death of Miss Lizzie's parents 30 years previously....

Really enjoyed this book. Well written and amusing in places even though the murder was rather horrific.