- Hardcover: 338 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan (25 July 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 033369418X
- ISBN-13: 978-0333694183
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,504,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Scars left by the War of Independence, some never healed, underlie the current troubles of many of the townspeople of Rufford, Maine, in 1786. Years before, when her husband James, a Loyalist, fled to Canada, midwife Hannah Trevor was taken in by her aunt Julie and uncle Henry Markham, a mill owner. Hannah's now eight-year-old deaf-mute daughter Jennet was born not long after, fathered not by James but by Major Daniel Josselyn, a British aristocrat turned Patriot who's now in a landowning partnership with money-grubbing Ham Siwall; Josselyn's riverside mansion is shared with his invalid English wife Charlotte. Meanwhile, the discovery of the beaten, raped body of Anthea Emory has the village in a turmoil of suspicion and accusation. Hannah and sturdy town constable Will Quaid found the victim, along with a letter accusing Josselyn of the crime, although it was said that Anthea could neither read nor write. Gossip has it that her husband Dunstan, a surveyor for Josselyn's business, was sent into the forbidding Outward forest on a fool's errand. Hannah, as she probes the mystery of Anthea's past, finds connections to the town of Webb's Ford and to what took place there at war's end. A second killing, this one executed with an antique hunting sword given to Josselyn by his grandfather, ties the noose tighter around his neck, as events reach their melodramatic end in the heart of the Outward. A remarkably accomplished first novel, only infrequently marred by overwrought passages, that masterfully combines war history, village life, a gallery of memorable characters, and a tantalizing puzzle. Rich and riveting. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
It is Maine, USA, in 1786 and in the midst of a hard winter, a young mother has been murdered. Hannah Trevor, the town's fiercely independent midwife, finds the body, and a note in which the victim names her attackers. The problem is that among them is Hannah's past secret lover.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Didn't like this book at all. A murder mystery set in the American civil war. Very dreary and depressing. The only reason I bought it was because of that great song of the same name by Paul Simon. You live and learn!
Format:Audio Cassette
HEARTS AND BONES
Hannah Trevor's fierce independence and disregard for convention sets her apart from the other women of her small town in Maine in 1786. Yet as a midwife, Hannah is intimately involved in the lives of people deeply scarred by the terrible War of Independence against the English. Now, in the midst of a merciless winter, a young wife and mother has been murdered, and in a heartbreaking note, written as she died, she has named her three attackers. And one of them is Hannah's secret lover.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaret Lawrence lives in the Midwest of America. She has written for film and theatre and has completed a screenplay based upon Hearts and Bones. In 1997, Hearts and Bones was shortlisted for an Agatha Award and for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime novel of the year.
Hannah Trevor's fierce independence and disregard for convention sets her apart from the other women of her small town in Maine in 1786. Yet as a midwife, Hannah is intimately involved in the lives of people deeply scarred by the terrible War of Independence against the English. Now, in the midst of a merciless winter, a young wife and mother has been murdered, and in a heartbreaking note, written as she died, she has named her three attackers. And one of them is Hannah's secret lover.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaret Lawrence lives in the Midwest of America. She has written for film and theatre and has completed a screenplay based upon Hearts and Bones. In 1997, Hearts and Bones was shortlisted for an Agatha Award and for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime novel of the year.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
32 reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Dark, disturbing, and absolutely riveting.
30 May 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
There are are hundreds (maybe thousands?) of historical mystery novels out there featuring women who are out of step with their time period (i.e., heroines who appeal to our modern feminist sensibilities). Hannah Trevor is one of the only protagonists I've ever read who is actually ostracized for this incongruity. Subsequently, she is also one of the most believable historical characters I've ever met.
This is a dark tale of post-revolutionary United States. Bad things happen to good people in this series, and although it's sometimes hard to read, it's also utterly realistic. Life is very, very hard for the inhabitants of this world, and for Hannah especially.
The plot is solid and interesting but necessarily takes a backseat to the time and setting. The main characters are relentlessly intense--I wish Hannah had been able to throw her head back and laugh once or twice, but this is not that kind of story.
This is a hard book to put down, and you will come away from it feeling as though you have traveled to another world. But you might want to take a break with some light-hearted reading before embarking on the sequel.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
compelling, if bleak, historical mystery
22 Oct 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ten years after the Revolutionary War, life is not a paradise of liberty and equality for the residents of Rufford, Maine. Many are dead, others are traumatized by the war, and still others are embittered by a poor economy and widening disparity between the haves and have-nots. Midwife and healer Hannah Trevor lives on the fringe of respectability here, and that's pretty much where she wants to be. This first in the series paints a bleak but realistic picture of the times and the people, and the reader will learn effortlessly about such things thanks to skillful writing and an intriguing story. Being the tale of a murder-rape in the aftermath of war, this novel is not for the squeamish; there's a fair bit of brutal violence, sex and situations, though if you can watch cable television you should be okay. A bit depressing but a worthwhile read and a good mystery. I will definitely read others in the series, though I'll probably read a comedy or two in between.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A great historical mystery
4 Mar 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
THE PLOT OR PREMISE:
Hannah Trevor is a midwife in 1786 colonial America. She has 3 dead children and a dead husband, and a live daughter whose unacknowledged / unclaimed father is a neighbour. Hannah is present when the authorities discover the raped and mutilated body of another village resident, who has left behind a letter accusing some of the village elite of the crime, including Hannah's former lover.
WHAT I LIKED:
The plotting is well-done, if somewhat slow to get to the discovery of the body. So well-done in fact that this would be easily readable without the murder mystery (i.e. if it was just a historical novel about life in colonial America). And perhaps that is the highest compliment to be paid to this book -- that it works well on different levels: historical novel (the life of the midwife, the role of women), a mystery novel (who raped and killed the woman?), and, to some extent, a love story (the relationship between Hannah and Daniel, her child's father).
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I figured out the murder mystery far too early, and I spotted other murders long before they actually happened. Fortunately, the great writing carried me to the end anyways.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
A great historical mystery, 4.00 lilypads out of 5.00.
Other:
- Source: New
- Original date of review: March 2001, updated 2011
- Tags: Amateur Detective, Crime, Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Prose, Religion, Romance
Hannah Trevor is a midwife in 1786 colonial America. She has 3 dead children and a dead husband, and a live daughter whose unacknowledged / unclaimed father is a neighbour. Hannah is present when the authorities discover the raped and mutilated body of another village resident, who has left behind a letter accusing some of the village elite of the crime, including Hannah's former lover.
WHAT I LIKED:
The plotting is well-done, if somewhat slow to get to the discovery of the body. So well-done in fact that this would be easily readable without the murder mystery (i.e. if it was just a historical novel about life in colonial America). And perhaps that is the highest compliment to be paid to this book -- that it works well on different levels: historical novel (the life of the midwife, the role of women), a mystery novel (who raped and killed the woman?), and, to some extent, a love story (the relationship between Hannah and Daniel, her child's father).
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I figured out the murder mystery far too early, and I spotted other murders long before they actually happened. Fortunately, the great writing carried me to the end anyways.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
A great historical mystery, 4.00 lilypads out of 5.00.
Other:
- Source: New
- Original date of review: March 2001, updated 2011
- Tags: Amateur Detective, Crime, Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Prose, Religion, Romance
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