One of the best books I've read in a long time!

books:


	• Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland Patricia Bryan, Thomas Wolf Algonquin Books, 2005 - 296 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Midnight Assasin

Excellent story told here, with a mix of history of farming life in the midwest in early 1900s, law, civil rights and the mystery of the murder. It keeps your interest with the who-done-it story line and the tease of incomplete information coming from crime scene research and from the witnesses at the trial. I recommend it.

The Dark Side of Little House on the Prairie

This is a well-written book that casts the reader back into the lives of prairie farmers at the beginning of the 20th century. It shows the dark side of Little House on the Prairie.

It is especially good at introducing the reader to the plight of many farm wives in that era. Through the trial of Margaret Hossack for the ax murder of her husband, we get a feel for the isolation and desperation of these women. The man a woman married was her whole lot in life. It was strictly the luck of the draw for her. If a husband turned out to be cold and abusive, as it seems Mr. Hossack was, his wife had little recourse but to suffer through it to the end. Although Margaret may not have suffered in complete silence, since there was ample evidence of how often she had rushed to her neighbors to complain of her husband's foul, dangerous moods - there was little anyone else could or would do to help. As this book keenly points out, the code of being a good housewife and a "lady" constrained women to their places and prevented others from interceding too effectively. The book poses the question - Did Mrs. Hossack ultimately engage in self help?

The book's other purpose is to juxtapose the lives of two women situated very differently in 1900. On the one hand, there is Mrs. Hossack, confined to her meager, loveless life on the prairie. On the other hand, there is Susan Glaspell, the liberated young reporter who covered Mrs. Hossack's first trial. I would have liked to have read more details about Glaspell's early career as a crime reporter in a man's world. But perhaps that would have been spreading the content of this book too thin. The author does circle back at the end of Midnight Assassin to provide a follow-up on Glaspell's writing career. Trifles, the play Glaspell eventually wrote, based loosely on the Hawkin's trial, has a heart-wrenching conclusion. It's worthwhile reading this book for that dramatic take on the caged lives of these farm women alone.

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No pics :-(

It is a Cardinal Rule for this longtime reader and reviewer of "true crime" books (See my List - True Crime 101) that books of this genre *Must Have Pictures* - of the participants, the "scene," etc., for the reader to understand whither thou goest and wherefore. Although authors Bryan and Wolf have obviously and thoroughly researched time and place, the reader may not be as familiar, hence photos are essential and their absence gets this book docked one star. Tintypes were prevalently hawked by city street vendors and chroniclers of the battlefields by the American Civil War and the technology continued to improve. This case was an Iowa OJ of its day. So there were pictures. Yet all the reader of this fin de 19th siecle saga is provided is one paltry diagram of the house on the frontispiece. Nonetheless, the authors attempt to impart appropriate prose pictures of the not-so-bucolic life, death, and legacy of a domestically battered farm family in rural Iowa. Oh they had trouble! Right there past rivered cities! (See also *Lillian's Legacy: Marriage and Murder in Rural Iowa* by Carroll R. McKibbin, where, at least, the reader is provided a picture of Lillian on the cover.)
This sometimes engaging and engrossing true crime/sociological/historical retrospective often bogs down in extensive direct quotes of bad and archaic American English which the reader must take pains to interpret - impeding the flow. Then there is the authors' proclivity for wending off-stream to ponder Lizzie Borden and other contemporaneous women/defendants whose fates were determined by a jury of her victims' (not her own - as females were not allowed to serve as jurors at the time) peers.
All that considered, I'd rate this a 3 ½ - if we were allowed half points here. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

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Great Read!

I bought this book because of my love of true crime. What I came away with was much more than a story of an ax murder in 1900 Iowa. The author's paint a vivid picture of the dismal life and the hardships of the wive's of farmers during this era, and the farmer's themselves, as they weave their story with true accounts of the actual investigation and trial.

Midnight Assassin is an easy read and real page turner. What I wasn't expecting was the portrait of desperation, fear and isolation that made this book so much more than a true crime story. "Little House on the Praire" this was not and is a must read!

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One of the best books I've read in a long time!

This book was of extreme interest from beginning to end. I love true crime stories, so the legal and moral aspects were the reason I purchased this book, but I found a secondary reason as soon as I started reading it. I am also interested in genealogy and my ancestors came to Iowa the same time as the Hossacks and they lived less than 45 miles apart. The authors' descriptions and stories of their lives and the everyday living of the farmers of the area were amazing. I felt like I was there, experiencing their lives, and their trials. Whenever a book can make me feel as if I am actually there, while it is happening, it is well worth the read.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In 1900, Margaret Hossack, the wife of a prominent Iowa farmer, was arrested for bludgeoning her husband to death with an ax while their children slept upstairs. The community was outraged: How could a woman commit such an act of violence? Firsthand accounts describe the victim, John Hossack, as a cruel and unstable man. Perhaps Margaret Hossack was acting out of fear. Or perhaps the story she told was true?that an intruder broke into the house, killed her husband while she slept soundly beside him, and was still on the loose. Newspapers across the country carried the story, and community sentiment was divided over her guilt. At trial, Margaret was convicted of murder, but later was released on appeal. Ultimately, neither her innocence nor her guilt was ever proved.

Patricia Bryan and Thomas Wolf examine the harsh realities of farm life at the turn of the century and look at the plight of women?legally, socially, and politically?during that period. What also emerges is the story of early feminist Susan Glaspell, who covered the Hossack case as a young reporter and later used it as the basis for her acclaimed work ? A Jury of Her Peers.?

Midnight Assassin expertly renders the American character and experience: our obsession with crime, how justice is achieved, and the powerful influence of the media.

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