Photo credit: Nicholas Purcell Studio
Every now and then books choose you. This is how I met Lizzie Borden:
In 2005, I was browsing in a secondhand bookstore. After an hour, I ended up, as usual, at the "miscellaneous section" in the back, where the light is dim and ragged copies of 1950s "Good Housewife" guides sit alongside small-town USA poltergeist stories. Next to the true crime section.
Habit and instinct had me reaching for a book about women who kill. My arm bumped a shelf and a slim pamphlet fell out onto the floor. It was about Lizzie Borden. I read the pulpy account of the August 4, 1892 Borden murders cover to cover. I looked at the photo of Lizzie and I heard a voice crawl into my ear and say, "There was no more love...