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"Bertha Mellish, "the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl" at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha's panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha's best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha's family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes and Bertha's lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha. Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive? Edmund White Award-winning author Katharine Beutner crafts a real-life unsolved mystery into an immersive, unforgettable work of literary crime fiction-a beautifully drawn historical portrait of queerness, family trauma, and the risks faced by women who dared to pursue unconventional paths at the end of the 19th century"--… (más)
Bertha Melish, a student at Mt. Holyoke college for women, goes missing in the late 1800's. Her roommate, Agnes, is a serious student of poor circumstances who basically keeps to herself and is Bertha's roommate and confidant. As the story unfolds, the reader learns that Agnes knows what happened to Bertha and has had a hand in her disappearance.
There is a cast of characters adding to the plot. Florence, Bertha's presumed sister is actually her mother as a result of incest with Florence's minister father. Dr. Hammond is the family doctor who is aware of Bertha's parentage and is fascinated and deeply in love with her although she is not the least interested in him. Agnes desires to become a surgeon and has the opportunity to learn anatomy at the school.
The story unfolds slowly but the reader sees that Bertha is pregnant as the result of a love affair with a illiterate Frenchman working at a mill. Agnes performs an abortion which goes bad and Bertha dies of sepsis and Agnes destroys the body promising Bertha that she will never reveal the pregnancy. The story is a bit of a stretch at times, but the school atmosphere with the girls seems very believable. The story might have had more of an impact if part of it could have been told from Bertha's point of view. ( )
"Bertha Mellish, "the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl" at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha's panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha's best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha's family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes and Bertha's lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha. Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive? Edmund White Award-winning author Katharine Beutner crafts a real-life unsolved mystery into an immersive, unforgettable work of literary crime fiction-a beautifully drawn historical portrait of queerness, family trauma, and the risks faced by women who dared to pursue unconventional paths at the end of the 19th century"--
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There is a cast of characters adding to the plot. Florence, Bertha's presumed sister is actually her mother as a result of incest with Florence's minister father. Dr. Hammond is the family doctor who is aware of Bertha's parentage and is fascinated and deeply in love with her although she is not the least interested in him. Agnes desires to become a surgeon and has the opportunity to learn anatomy at the school.
The story unfolds slowly but the reader sees that Bertha is pregnant as the result of a love affair with a illiterate Frenchman working at a mill. Agnes performs an abortion which goes bad and Bertha dies of sepsis and Agnes destroys the body promising Bertha that she will never reveal the pregnancy. The story is a bit of a stretch at times, but the school atmosphere with the girls seems very believable. The story might have had more of an impact if part of it could have been told from Bertha's point of view. (