What I Read -- The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress

S and I took a trip to Ireland a couple of Christmases ago, where I learned an intriguing little bit about Grace O'Malley, a clan leader and pirate who controlled the western Irish coastline in a way no other woman ever has.  I haven't forgotten about her since, and have wanted to do some more research to learn about her life.  

Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that there is a recently-published novelization of her life.  It was written by Ariel Lawhon, and she was on a book tour which included a stop at the SLCL.  My friend M and I went to her talk. She was smart and funny and I was completely taken, but unfortunately the waiting list for her Grace O'Malley book, The Pirate Queen, was long.  Many of her other books are also based on real-life characters, novelized. 

While waiting for The Pirate Queen to become available from the library, I grabbed another of Lawhon's books, The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress. It's the story of the disappearance and death of New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Crater, and the police detective who is on the trail. This is where the make-believe comes in: Crater's body was never found and, though there are a lot of strong theories, the murder was never solved.  It makes for a great fill-in-your-own-blanks opportunity for a novelist.

While my interest was piqued by Grace O'Malley, if yours is piqued by Crater's disappearance, there are two books written about it: Vanishing Point: The Disappearance of Judge Crater, and the New York He Left Behind and The Empty Robe: The Story of the Disappearance of Judge Crater. These are both mentioned in an author's note (read by the author herself) at the conclusion of the book, which also includes a reasonably thorough recounting of what parts of her story were completely her own creations.  

If you're interested in the audio version, the narrator of the audiobook generally did a pretty nice job with the different voices and accents.