Ariel Lawhon's THE FROZEN RIVER

Join us at Mechanics' Hall for a conversation with critically-acclaimed author, Ariel Lawhon and bestselling mystery author Julia Spencer Fleming. Together we'll celebrate and learn about Lawhon's process and inspiration for her sweeping historical mystery with local ties.

THE FROZEN RIVER is inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning diaries of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who finds herself at the center of a shocking M**der that unhinges her small community of Hallowell, Maine.

Lawhon’s latest plunges us into the early morning hours of November 1789. Local midwife and healer Martha Ballard has just finished delivering a baby when she’s called to examine a body found in the Kennebec River. Martha instantly recognizes the body—it belongs to one of two men accused of having assaulted her friend. This novel brings to life the sting of the frigid Maine air, warmth of the homesteaders’ fur cloaks, and herbal fumes of the tonics Martha brews.

Extensively researched and gripping until the last page, Lawhon expertly paints a picture of a community of recent immigrants making a life in an unforgiving landscape as public opinion shifts over the course of the unfolding trial.

Clever, layered, and subversive, featuring a too-bold-for-her-time protagonist à la Bonnie Garmus’s Elizabeth Zott, the twists, turns, and suspicions of a Louise Penny mystery THE FROZEN RIVER is a searing ode to the intensities of motherhood and marriage, the realities of vigilante justice, and Martha Ballard, the real-life matriarch who wove herself indelibly into the tapestry of American history.

Don't miss this gripping author-to-author conversation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ARIEL LAWHON is a critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have been Library Reads, One Book One County, Indie Next, Costco, Amazon Spotlight, and Book of the Month Club selections. She lives in the rolling hills outside Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and four sons. Ariel splits her time between the grocery store and the baseball field.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING is the New York Times bestselling author of One Was a Soldier, and an Agatha, Anthony, Dilys, Barry, Macavity, and Gumshoe Award winner. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College and received her J.D. at the University of Maine School of Law. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Nero Wolfe, and Romantic Times RC awards. Julia lives in a 190-year-old farmhouse in southern Maine.

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