Marriage and Hanging was the 3rd PLACE fiction winner of the 2024 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Genevieve Morrissey.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Marriage and Hanging, published February 2024
What’s the book’s first line?
“I believe there is nothing in the world so quickly undone as a woman’s work,” Mrs. Tudge murmured…
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Rachel Woodley’s quiet, ordered life as a minister’s wife was turned upside down, first by the death of her infant daughter, and then again by the breakdown of her marriage when her husband, young Reverend Josiah Woodley, proved not to be the masterful “head of the woman” her religion taught her to expect in a man, but a gentle soul as wounded as she was by the loss of their child. Now she faces a third devastating blow: A young mill girl—pregnant—has been found hanged, and circumstantial evidence links Josiah to the crime.
Josiah is arrested, and his fellow ministers, embarrassed by the nature of the crime with which he is charged, are not highly motivated to defend him. Of Rachel herself, they demand prayerful submission. Rachel has always regarded her “unwomanly” initiative as her gravest fault, but now—with nothing to guide her but that same initiative, and bolstered by Josiah’s assurances that her judgment is trustworthy—Rachel sets out alone to save her husband…if she can. Time is short, and the case proves darker and more complicated than she imagined. Can Rachel uncover what she needs in time to save Josiah from the gallows?
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Marriage and Hanging was inspired by real events. In 1832 Fall River, Massachusetts, a young mill girl, pregnant, was found hanged. Suspicion fell on a minister, who was then tried for the crime. Beyond those bare facts, the two stories—the true one and mine—don’t have a great deal in common. This is because what fascinated me about the original case wasn’t the crime itself (which was fairly mundane, and rather tawdry), but rather the way in which every aspect of the criminal investigation and trial were influenced by long-standing local prejudices and the contrasting social positions, education, occupations, and of course, genders of the victim and accused. Who people were (and who people thought they were), had more bearing on the case than the evidence, and was more interesting.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
I think the best reason to read any fiction is because it’s enjoyable, and it’s most enjoyable if it’s relatable. Marriage and Hanging is a story about trust. The principal characters must learn who, and what, and how, to trust in others, and in themselves. So do we all.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Having been told all her life that intelligence, drive, and enterprise are faults in a woman, Rachel Woodley struggles to subdue those qualities in herself. She only begins to know her own value when she has no other choice but to rely on the very aspects of her nature of which she has been most ashamed. In that way, she resembles many, many people I have known in my life who, when faced with adversity, discover hidden reserves of strength and ability within themselves.