Winter 1832 is bitter cold in Milltown, Massachusetts, a farm village that has become a bustling center for producing cotton thread and cloth. Reverend Josiah Woodley and his wife, Rachel, have recently relocated from Seabury, another mill town, following the death of their newborn daughter. Grief causes them to “lay as far apart” as possible in their narrow bed. Rachel rejects Josiah’s tender attempts to soothe her. Instead, she craves stern reassurances about accepting God’s unknowable will. She is certain that Josiah has “failed her, both as a husband and a minister” because he feels just as broken as she does.

But Rachel soon faces another potentially devastating loss when circumstantial evidence leads to Josiah’s arrest for the death of the pretty, young millworker Mary Hale. Mary left Seabury for Milltown around the same time as the Woodleys.

Genevieve Morrissey’s MARRIAGE AND HANGING shows how Milltown’s textile mills employ young women, some no older than 15. The town’s married women, including Rachel, distrust them. Rachel has heard rumors of promiscuity connected to Mary, and is troubled by her memory of Josiah talking with Mary at the Seabury church—even though he says they discussed religious matters. Rachel wonders whether gentle Josiah was unfaithful and is capable of murder. Conversely, she is troubled that colleagues at his current church are doing little to disprove his guilt. Who should be trusted? Who will tell her what to do?

One of the most engaging aspects of Morrissey’s novel is this central question of a woman’s right and need to guide herself. Enlightened for his times, Josiah trusts his wife’s intellect and ability to make good decisions. He won’t tell Rachel what to believe or how to save him. So Rachel becomes an amateur sleuth, going places where “ladies” are not supposed to be. This includes the town jail, where her excellent meat pie “oozing gravy” wins over the gruff sheriff.

Humor lightens the mood in MARRIAGE AND HANGING, often introduced through character descriptions: “If all men have their price,” the author writes,” the sheriff’s price happened to be a meat pie. He was a bachelor who, like his prisoners, was condemned without trial to a diet of tavern food […].”

Morrissey calls herself a student of social history, a description supported not only by her current novel but also her Sci-Fi series, Antlands, about rebuilding civilization. Where will this interest lead her next? Morrissey is an excellent storyteller, so there’s no doubt that wherever she goes, readers will follow.

Genevieve Morrissey’s MARRIAGE AND HANGING is a splendid historical novel that will captivate fans of mystery as it explores questions of trust in marriage, religion, and oneself.

~Alicia Rudnicki for IndieReader