Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Murdering Stepmothers: The Execution of Martha Rendell

3.2/5 ( ratings)

It's 1909 in Perth, Australia, and sensational rumors of the murder of three small children by their stepmother ignite the passions of the citizens. Shocked by horrific descriptions of how Martha Rendell poisoned the children, Perth's citizens - as one voice - demanded her execution. But did Martha Rendell truly do it? Or was she a victim of the prejudices of her persecutors? Based on a true story and meticulously researched, this compelling novel is driven by passion, imagination, and an eerie conjuring up of the past. Author Anna Haebich brings to life the people of Perth and the entangled mesh of self-righteous bigotry, slander, and unbridled revenge that they invoked to propel the trial of Martha Rendell to its inevitable end. The book documents the accused woman's downward spiral from her dreams of a new beginning with her lover to a life of domestic drudgery and deceit; then her final days on the edge of the abyss - becoming the last woman in the state to be hanged. Murdering Stepmothers is told from the perspective of five different characters - the doctor, the priest, the photographer, the researcher, and the detective. The book creates a fresh, vivid, fusion of factual history and insightful imagining. Inspired by the author's shared experiences as a stepmother, which perpetuated a desire to tell Martha's story without sensationalism, it tackles the very serious, and still relevant, questions of conviction, evidence, legal processes, and right to re-trial.

Language: English

Pages: 224

Format: Paperback

Publisher: UWA Publishing

Release: May 15, 2010

ISBN: 1921401451

ISBN 13: 9781921401459

Murdering Stepmothers: The Execution of Martha Rendell

3.2/5 ( ratings)

It's 1909 in Perth, Australia, and sensational rumors of the murder of three small children by their stepmother ignite the passions of the citizens. Shocked by horrific descriptions of how Martha Rendell poisoned the children, Perth's citizens - as one voice - demanded her execution. But did Martha Rendell truly do it? Or was she a victim of the prejudices of her persecutors? Based on a true story and meticulously researched, this compelling novel is driven by passion, imagination, and an eerie conjuring up of the past. Author Anna Haebich brings to life the people of Perth and the entangled mesh of self-righteous bigotry, slander, and unbridled revenge that they invoked to propel the trial of Martha Rendell to its inevitable end. The book documents the accused woman's downward spiral from her dreams of a new beginning with her lover to a life of domestic drudgery and deceit; then her final days on the edge of the abyss - becoming the last woman in the state to be hanged. Murdering Stepmothers is told from the perspective of five different characters - the doctor, the priest, the photographer, the researcher, and the detective. The book creates a fresh, vivid, fusion of factual history and insightful imagining. Inspired by the author's shared experiences as a stepmother, which perpetuated a desire to tell Martha's story without sensationalism, it tackles the very serious, and still relevant, questions of conviction, evidence, legal processes, and right to re-trial.

Language: English

Pages: 224

Format: Paperback

Publisher: UWA Publishing

Release: May 15, 2010

ISBN: 1921401451

ISBN 13: 9781921401459

More books from Anna Haebich

A Boy's Short Life: The Story of Warren Braedon/Louis Johnson

4.7/5 ( ratings)

Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970

3.7/5 ( ratings)

For Their Own Good Aborigines And Government In The South West Of Western Australia 1900 1940

4.2/5 ( ratings)

A Boy's Short Life: The story of Warren Braedon/Louis Johnson

Dancing In Shadows : Histories of Nyungar Performance

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Indigenous Biography And Autobiography

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Floating Life: Contemporary Aboriginal Fibre Art

Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Familes 1800-2000: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000

The Cambridge History of Australia (vol. ii): The Commonwealth of Australia

Spinning The Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970

Landscapes of Exile: Once Perilous, Now Safe

Rate this book!

Write a review?