THE MURDERESS

A mysterious young woman becomes the focal point of a true-crime novel about a grisly, Depression-era crime of passion.

When Los Angeles train station authorities force open two leaking, putrid-smelling trunks, the dismembered female bodies they find horrify them. Yet what leaves them especially aghast is the idea that Ruth Judd, the pretty young woman who presents a claim ticket for the trunks, could possibly be involved in what clearly appears to be murder. Notaro carefully reconstructs the Depression-era period in which this real-life crime took place and presents a sympathetic portrayal of Ruth, who manages to walk out of the baggage claim but is quickly identified as a suspect. In the narrative that follows the bodies’ discovery, Notaro alternates a chronicle of the hunt for Ruth with sections told from her point of view that reveal her motivations. A painful youth, marriage to a drug-addicted WWI veteran named Doctor, and a forced abortion at Doctor’s hands form the cornerstones of her troubled personality. She developed a lifelong obsession with the baby she lost and delusions that the child still lives. After Ruth and Doctor were temporarily separated, she eventually wound up in Phoenix, where she fell in love with Jack, a married—and unscrupulous—businessman. He got her a job at a clinic, which led to her friendship with the two lesbians who became the murder victims. As complex as it is deftly crafted—weaving newspaper accounts and letters written by the real-life Ruth within a compelling fictional web—this is a pulse-pounding, page-turning, heartbreaking account of the misunderstood woman behind a sensational news story that gripped a nation.

A haunting novel that never lets the reader go.