Blog Tour Stop & Giveaway- Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom
Lizzie
Borden
by
Elizabeth Engstrom
Genre:
Historical Mystery, Thriller
Did
she do it?
A
hundred years ago, it was the Trial of the Century. A young woman
stood accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother in a
crime so heinous that it became a benchmark in human tragedy.
A
hundred years later, the Lizzie Borden case still resounds in the
imagination. There are those who staunchly defend Lizzie’s
innocence while others vehemently declare that she did it, and that
the murder was justified.
In
Elizabeth Engstrom’s brilliant novel, the dark psychology of the
Borden household is laid bare. Lizzie, her sister Emma and their
parents Andrew and Abby Borden, are sharply illuminated—as are the
paranoia and concealed hatred that secretly ruled the family.
Domestic violence and dysfunctional families are not inventions of
modern times.
“Every
door in the Borden house is metaphorically locked, and each room holds
the terrible secrets of its occupant…Engstrom skillfully and subtly
builds a psychological plot, moving the reader inexorably toward the
anticipated savage denouement.” —Publishers Weekly
Abby settled back into her bed, the
fear of the dark shadows gone, the anger at Andrew gone, the worry over Lizzie
having another headache gone. All that was left was that creeping feeling of
doom.
It had been intensifying lately,
that feeling. That terrible feeling that something was about to happen. The
present status could not remain so for very much longer; everyone seemed to be
strung just a little bit too tight. And when people are just a little too
close, just a little too crowded, well, things begin to happen.
Like jewelry and money disappearing
and reappearing in the barn.
A shiver ran through Abby. It was
such a violation, that little robbery. It was such a slap in the face by some
member of this household. That was a day she almost gave the ultimatum to
Andrew: We move or they move. But the tensions had eased some after that, and
of course, there had been no repeating offenses, nor had Abby any reason to
think there would be. The point, whatever it was, had apparently been made.
The thought of the robbery was
inseparable from this feeling of dread that she had, this moving black shadow
that was just a little darker than the dark, when nothing was there. The
robbery was an omen, she thought, of ominous things to come, and if she were a
real wife, and a real mother, she would insist
that Andrew take her out of this house and save them all from themselves.
But she was not a real wife, and
Andrew knew that, and she was not a real mother, and both Emma and Lizzie knew
that.
So she would make do, as she always
had, spending her time with Sarah and her many troubles, and the occasional
birthing that came along in her little circle of acquaintances, and she would
hope that when the end came, whatever it may be, that it be swift and sure,
silent and without warning.
Elizabeth
(Liz) Engstrom grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb
where she lived with her father) and Kaysville, Utah (north of Salt
Lake City, where she lived with her mother). After graduating from
high school in Illinois, she ventured west in a serious search for
acceptable weather, eventually settling in Honolulu. She attended
college and worked as an advertising copywriter.
After
eight years on Oahu, she moved to Maui, found a business partner and
opened an advertising agency. One husband, two children and five
years later, she sold the agency to her partner and had enough seed
money to try her hand at full time fiction writing, her lifelong
dream. With the help of her mentor, science fiction great Theodore
Sturgeon, When Darkness Loves Us was published.
Engstrom
moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1986, where she lives with her husband Al
Cratty, the legendary muskie fisherman, and their Duck Tolling
Retriever, Jook. Liz holds a BA in English Literature and Creative
Writing and a Master of Arts in Applied Theology, both from
Marylhurst University. A recluse at heart, she still emerges into
public occasionally to speak at a writers conference, or to teach a
class on various aspects of writing the novel, essay, article or
short story. An avid knitter and gardener, she is on faculty at the
University of Phoenix and is always working on the next book.
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the tour HERE
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