I WITNESSED

The story of the 1892 murders of Andrew Jackson Borden and his wife, Abby, and the subsequent trial of daughter Lizzie, told from the perspective of their young neighbor.

Adding a light wash of invented detail to an account otherwise closely based on historical records, Kraatz presents a subtly nuanced view of the gruesome, controversial case. Despite his determination to get to the bottom of things, which leads him into some frightening situations, all 14-year-old Charlie knows about the Bordens next door is that they are a tense and unhappy family, and all he sees is a hatchet-wielding shadow in a covered window. But even though Lizzie is ultimately acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother, in Charlie’s mind a residue of fear and suspicion remains—which Lizzie’s own remote, collected manner in chance encounters before and after the killings does nothing to dispel. Indeed, nearly everything she and her equally reserved younger sister, Emma, say seems freighted with double meanings that carry suggestions of secrets, buried emotional currents, and perhaps even complicity. The enigmatic expressions on their faces in Jayme’s somber, two-color scenes brilliantly underscore this ambiguity. Readers can’t help but come away less titillated by the case’s sensational aspects than disquieted by feelings that one or both of the surviving sisters knew things about that day that they silently carried to their graves.

A true whodunit, rich in ambiguities and suggestive hints.