The sinners all bow

two authors one murder and the real Hester Prynne

The sinners all bow

two authors one murder and the real Hester Prynne
Kate Winkler Dawson
Book - 2025

"On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery's lawyers) claimed her death was suicide...but others weren't so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The case and Williams' book became a sensation-one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell's death. Until now. In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements-such as "forensic knot analysis" to determine cause of death, the prosecutor's notes from 1833, and criminal profiling which was invented 55 years later with Jack the Ripper-Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams' research to find the truth. Along the way she also examines how society decides who is the "right kind" of crime victim and how America's long history of religious evangelism may have clouded the facts both in the 1830s and today. Ultimately, The Sinners All Bow brings justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given"--

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Barcode Status Material Type CallNumber
37413322331069 Checked out New Adult Non-Fiction 364.1523 DAWSON
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dawson, Kate Winkler (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2025]
Subjects:

MARC

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520 |a "On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery's lawyers) claimed her death was suicide...but others weren't so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The case and Williams' book became a sensation-one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell's death. Until now. In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements-such as "forensic knot analysis" to determine cause of death, the prosecutor's notes from 1833, and criminal profiling which was invented 55 years later with Jack the Ripper-Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams' research to find the truth. Along the way she also examines how society decides who is the "right kind" of crime victim and how America's long history of religious evangelism may have clouded the facts both in the 1830s and today. Ultimately, The Sinners All Bow brings justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given"--  |c Provided by publisher. 
600 1 0 |a Cornell, Sarah Maria,  |d 1802-1832.  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81052350 
600 1 0 |a Avery, Ephraim K.,  |d 1799-1869.  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81052351 
600 1 0 |a Williams, C. R.  |q (Catherine Read),  |d 1790-1872.  |t Fall River.  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2014115782 
650 0 |a Murder  |x Rhode Island  |x History  |y 19th century. 
650 0 |a Murder  |z Massachusetts  |z Fall River  |x History  |y 19th century. 
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