I think that I would give this a 2.5 stars. The topic is very intriguing, and the story was unvarnished, and gritty. It is the story of Martha Place, a true figure in history, a convicted murderess, and the first woman to be executed by electric chair in the United States.

But I found that the way it was written did not appeal to me, as it was in a series of statements from individuals involved in the story, including Martha, the family and other people involved in relationships with her, even tangentially, including matrons, lawyers, maids. It felt very fractured to me. Through most of it, I felt like I was reading a transcript for a true crime reality show, like Fear Thy Neighbor or some such show. So it was hard going and several times I just wanted to stop, but once I got through the halfway mark, I just kept on.

Again, it was very gritty and unvarnished. There was no romanticizing of the characters involved, but on saying that, it was sometimes hard to develop any connection to some of the characters. Martha Place obviously had a hard life that was lacking in warmth and love, and that seemed to make her into a hard woman who had difficulties having relationships with others as as adult. But it was also hard to have sympathy for the others around her, including her victims. Most of the people involved in her story seemed to me to be generally weak or deplorable in some way.

The topic was intriguing though and the author did inject some question as to Martha's guilt and whether or not someone else was involved, but ultimately, it was about Martha and her road to the electric chair, and it was left up to the reader's imagination whether there was other theories, especially as this was a story of over 100 years ago, and any evidence otherwise would likely have been either unexplored, or lost.

This was a story that I did find made me think and question. Especially about how relationships impact individuals and past relationships impact future; familial relationships. Also about the treatment of women during the turn of the century, and the role of news media. However, I would have to say that this was written in a way that I found personally found enjoyable.

I received a free copy from NetGalley, and this is my freely given opinion.

In The Murderess Must Die, author Marlie Parker Wasserman provides the reader with a riveting historical crime fiction tale that is based on the true crime case of Martha Place, who was convicted of the murder of her stepdaughter Ida Place, and was the first woman to die in the electric chair in Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899.

The story revolves around the last thirteen months of Martha's life while in Sing Sing Prison, she tells her life story before and after the murder to a missionary and prison guards while awaiting the date set for her execution. Told in the first person narrative, Martha tells of her difficult childhood growing up in a poor family on a farm in East Millstone, New Jersey; her disastrous first marriage and having to give her son up for adoption; to her second marriage to William Place, and the events that led up to the murder of her teenage stepdaughter Ida Place; and the subsequent trial that consisted of an inept defense and a biased 1898 justice system, conviction, and execution. Intertwined within Martha's account are the alternating first person perspectives from people who knew Martha.

In The Murderess Must Die, the author provides a riveting story that easily draws the reader into Martha's story. You can't help but get drawn into this complicated, fascinating, and multi-layered story. From the true crime aspect, I couldn't help but Google Martha Place on Wikipedia, which provided the accuracy of the case that the author depicted in her book, while interweaving the historical fiction aspect of Martha's own voice from the grave. This is a compelling story that narrates Martha's difficult life story, and the subservient place women held in the 1890s male dominated society and criminal justice system.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-murderess-must-die-by-marlie-parker.html

The first woman to be electrocuted for murder. I was pulled in right away. The book was written from the viewpoint of a dozen different characters, telling the story from their eyes while moving events along. The childhood of Martha was so heartbreaking, excruciating really. You're taking everything in, trying to figure out the person she became. Knowing what's coming but not how or why. After the murder and the trial and legal proceedings begin, I admit my interest faltered. But I kept on to the end. Being able to read so many different characters' viewpoints kept it going for me. Overall, a fascinating if disturbing story.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

This is both a compelling and disturbing fictionalized account of the actions leading up to and including the first woman put to death in an electric chair at Sing Sing. Wasserman has done a good job of developing Martha, the murderess. We get a good sense of her childhood and then her character as it developed. We know, of course what is going to ultimately happen but Wasserman creates a narrative leading us up the actual murder, the ensuing court case, appeals and finally the execution that kept me turning pages. There are some gruesome aspects to this book as an execution before Martha's is described in all its botched fullnss.

This is a good psychological study of the murderess Martha. While Wasserman only had newspaper reports and other objective information, she created a very emotional account. The point of view changes frequently as we experience the actions and thoughts of many people involved. That technique can be confusing but worked relatively well in this book.

The book is a good debut effort. I really appreciate the author note at the end of the book identifying which events and people are historical and which Wasserman created. I look forward to her next true crime fiction she is researching even now.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

A historical mystery based on a true crime.

Martha Place has been arrested for the murder of her stepdaughter and the attempted murder of her husband. This story revolves around the series of events that lead up to the crime and Martha's time in prison.

Martha did not have an easy life growing up and suffered emotional abuse, from those around her. And in my opinion, what caused her to snap.

Told from different points of view, follows the events prior, leading up to, during, and after the events of the murder.

Prior to reading this book, I never heard of Martha Place, nor knew that she was the first woman to be executed by the electric chair.

Overall this was an interesting read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, The Muderess Must Die by Marlie Parker Wasserman.

This book was very well researched and…perfectly executed. #puns

It’s the (mostly historically accurate with some creative liberties) story of the very 1st woman to be executed via the electric chair, Martha Place.

It gives the story of her 1st bad marriage…her putting her child from that marriage up for adoption and the guilt she felt for doing so. Then goes into the 2nd marriage and the strained relationship between Martha’s new husband and his spoiled daughter Ida…including how they feel about Ross (the child given up for adoption). Which then leads to the charges against Martha Place and her ultimate death by electrocution.

Perfect prose. The transition from one character to the next was so smooth. Characters of all degrees of importance are included and set the tone for the novel. We even get firsthand accounts from Martha Place herself. I had so many different feelings while reading this book. Not all books have the ability to truly make you FEEL something.

While her crimes were heinous, the reader is provided with enough background to also feel compassion for The Murderess.

I enjoyed the author’s alternate theories for how Ida met her end. After I finished the book, I was curious about Martha’s 2nd husband (ida’s father) though. 🤔

I highly recommend this book. It’s very insightful. A very easy read once you sink into the writing style. If you’re into books with lots of perspectives & points of view then you’ll probably want to check this one out.

Martha Place had a horrible childhood that did not set her up for success. She ended up in a loveless marriage that gave her security, but not much else and in my humble opinion she snapped and after reading the abuse she endured, I don't completely blame her! Her actions are just a part of the story as she becomes a first in history, maybe not a first that you want in the history books!

The thing for me with this book was that the quick switching of perspectives messed with the flow of the story for me. I love a story where you get multiple points of view so you can see an event through many eyes, but this book felt like two many points of view and they changed as soon as I was getting into their minds. I wish it had limited the voices to just a few and their portions would have been longer in length.

Because of the way it was written, that really affected my enjoyment of the story and I now would love to read Martha Place's story written in a different way because I think it would be so interesting to hear about the first women who was sent to the electric chair, but I want to hear it from just a few people.

While a debut novel that I didn't completely love, I would be intrigued to try another from this author to see if it was just this one and not how this author writes her stories.

I thought this book had my name all over it. Nineteenth century death penalty, true crime with a hint of historical fiction thrown in. Sign me up!
But the reality was far different. My main difficulty was the changing perpectives of the characters, and there were a lot of characters! With only a few pages for each one, I found myself getting thrown from the story each time, and it felt stilted and disjointed to me.
The writing style was obviously written with the language of the time which can be difficult for me anyway, so this didn't help my concentration, or lack of it.
I am clearly in the minority, and I'm glad other readers loved it! It is still a fascinating story, that needs to be told.

The subject matter of this book is very interesting but the writing falls short. I understand that the author spent a lot of time researching and used original trial transcripts and newspaper articles for much of the dialogue. There is no description of the surroundings or any feelings; there is nothing to visualize as I read about this unfortunate woman's life. It's all told from a matter of fact way and doesn't read like most historical fiction. I could have used more connection with the main character to actually care about her. The back and forth narratives of all of the characters is exhausting and I put the book down for a few days. I only came back to finish it since I was past the half way mark and just wanted to get it over with.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book to review !

The Murderess Must Die
by Marlie Parker Wasserman

Great historical mystery based upon a true crime and real figures of 1898.

Martha Place has been arrested for the murder of her step daughter and the attempted murder of her husband. This story revolves around the series of events that lead up to the crime and Martha's time in prison.

Told in different time lines, this is a captivating read with well defined characters. A highly recommended novel of historical fiction and mystery.

5 stars
The Murderess Must Die
by Marlie Parker Wasserman
This is by far the best book I have read in 2021! Based on a true story, I had never heard of Mattie Place prior to reading this book. I loved all of the varying voices telling in the exact same story. It was unique and fresh and so wonderfully deep. I had a very hard time putting the book down until I was finished!
It isn't often that an author makes me feel for the murderess but I did. I connected deeply with all of the people in this book, and I do believe it will stay with me for a very long time.
This is a fictionalized version of the murder of Ida Place but it read as if the author Marlie Parker Wasserman was a bystander to the actual events. I very highly recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

I greatly enjoyed the historical work the author put into this book. Reading older newspapers, there are so many times names and reports are inaccurate that creating a timeline and sense from conflicting articles is difficult. While I didn't know much about this case, I had come across Ms. Place's name a number of years ago. This book filled in a lot of information about what she did and her eventual fate.

There are many characters in this book - at times (especially in the beginning) seemingly way too many to keep proper track. In the second section, the book became smoother and easier to read. I concur with the author's final notes and opinion about the case, so I'm glad that she included that section.

I was initially captured by the description of this book. I was curious as to how the actions of one woman and the socio-historical context could rationalise her as the first female to die by the electric chair. The crime was not one I heard of, but the context fascinated me. Though still shocking in modern day, the punishment must have been even more so at the time.

I liked the author’s use of multiple characters and the use of the first person to tell the story from different perspectives. The subjective narrative juxtaposes the conventional objective idea of criminal evidence, which I think worked well. The different opinions gives the reader plenty to consider when trying to make up their own mind. As much as the reader can have their own opinion about the murder itself, the author challenges the reader to determine the context of the lead up to the murder and how the case was handled afterwards.

I struggled for the first part of the book with connecting with the characters, but I found this shift once the murder had taken place. Whether this was intended or not by the author, one Mattie realises her fate, I find her a more vulnerable and interesting figure. I feel like this could have been exploited earlier, especially during the childhood era at the beginning. Overall, I would have liked to see less minor characters and focus more on Mattie herself, rather than the people around her. I sometimes found the amount of voices confusing, and not all of them added enough to the narrative. I also found some of the dialogue quite stunted in places, which I think made some of the characters quite two-dimensional at times.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and found the story interesting. I feel like I have learnt something from reading the book and can now appreciate the socio-historical context more
but I would probably score it slightly lower due to my feeling of disconnect with the characters for a large chunk of the story. The book has allowed me to discover a time and place in history I haven’t explored before. The book is a good advocate for crime novels set in this time period. Based on my experience reading this book, I would like to read similar novels to learn more

This is an exceptional novel of the fictionalized account of a crime committed in the late 1800s that sent a woman to the electric chair for the very first time ever.
Martha Place is accused of throwing acid in the face of her beautiful stepdaughter, hitting her with an axe and suffocating her, also of then trying to kill her husband with the same axe, though he suffered severe injuries he survived to testify against Martha.
Despite having some eight lawyers work her case over the year it took to come to the trial's conclusion, Martha never was allowed to tell her side of the story, this novel gives Martha a voice, allowing her to speak from the grave. She tells her own story, her way. In some places her memory is incomplete but with the help of her lawyer the gaps are filled.
We not only hear Martha's voice in this novel, but the voices of her husband, stepdaughter, her brother, several lawyers, policemen and doctors, along with the guards from the jail where she was held awaiting trial. The story is told in an interview form, with each person telling their version of events as they happen. This made for very interesting reading as you can see how one person's interpretation of an event can vary drastically from another person's witnessing the exact same event at the same time.
We are left with many questions, was Martha an evil stepmother, so jealous of her stepdaughter that she kills her so viscously? Or was Martha an abused housewife at the end of her rope who finally snaps when the abuse becomes unbearable? Or was she simply insane? Martha was brought up in poverty with an abusive family life, did this contribute to what happened on that cold day in February? We will never really know the answer to why a respectable woman, married to a respectable professional man, living in a nice house in a good neighborhood suddenly snaps so violently.
This book was very thought provoking and the fact that she was the very first woman in the world to ever die from the electric chair makes it even more interesting, not to mention that the governor of New York who refused to give Martha clemency was none other than a young Theodore Roosevelt!
5 stars for sure, all historical fiction fans will like this fantastical tale of jealousy and murder!

The Murderess Must Die
by Marlie Parker Wasserman
Level Best Books
Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
Historical Fiction | Mystery & Thrillers | True Crime
Pub Date 06 Jul 2021


I am reviewing a copy of The Murderess Must Die through Level Best Books, Independent Book Publishers association and Netgalley:


During a cold winter day in 1898 hundreds of spectators gather at a Brooklyn courthouse, scrambling for a view of the woman they label a murderess. Martha Place has been charged with throwing acid in her stepdaughter’s face, hitting her with an axe, suffocating her with a pillow, then trying to kill her husband with the same axe. It will be another year before the crowd knows that Martha Place will be the first woman in the world to be executed in the electric chair. None of her eight lawyers can save her from a guilty verdict and the governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, refuses to grant her clemency.



The questions remain whether Martha Place was a wicked step mother, an abused wife or an insane killer? Was her stepdaughter a tragic victim? Why would a well-dressed woman, living with an upstanding husband, in a respectable neighborhood, turn violent?


From the beginning of the crime we have only heard from those who abused and Condemned Martha Place, but in this book Martha is finally given a voice,


I give The Murderess Must Die, five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Even though I've never heard of Martha Place before, nor had I known that she was the first woman to be executed by the electric chair, I thoroughly enjoyed this story., especially the strong feminist voice

I much preferred the first part of this book.
Mattie was an excellent narrator, with just the right amount of attitude towards everyone.
I felt that by the time the crime had been committed,there were too many characters popping up for a page or so,and they were all a bit bland.
Worth hanging in there though for the further musings of the main character.