See What I Have Done (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780802126597)

Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Or did she?

In this riveting debut novel, See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most fascinating murder cases of all time into an intimate story of a volatile household and a family devoid of love.

On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone's killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell--of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful stepmother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence.

As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? When did she last speak to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now? Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.

Author: Sarah Schmidt
ISBN-10: 0802126596
ISBN-13: 9780802126597
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2017
Pages: 324
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.40w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/15/2017 pg. 90
Library Journal 03/15/2017
Library Journal 05/01/2017 pg. 68
Booklist 05/01/2017 pg. 29
Publishers Weekly 05/08/2017
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2017 pg. 26
Foreword 06/26/2017
Shelf Awareness 09/01/2017