The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, 488 pages; Published December 2023. Good Morning America Book Club Pick. Publisher: Doubleday.
The Frozen River is a historical fiction/ mystery novel by Ariel Lawhon that fictionizes events in the real life of a late 1700’s midwife Martha Ballard who lived in Hollowell, Maine. Ariel Lawhon based much of the novel from real entries from Martha Ballard’s diary. Martha Ballard had an interesting place in society, as a midwife in the nearly formed United States of America, she was afforded privileges that other women did not have access to at the time such as testifying in the Court of general sessions about matters related to illegitimacy in births and paternity matters. She family owned a lumber mill in the town of Hallowell and she herself birthed nine children.
She also was literate and recorded over 10,000 entries during the last 27 years of her life. Many of her entries were related to the weather and what she was doing on particular days. The Frozen River takes real events that were recorded in her real life journal entries and adds and alternative history mystery storyline that could have have been plausible. Most of the scenes in this story take place between November 1789 and April 1790 during a long, cold winter.
This story is sure to intrigue historical fiction fans as well as mystery readers. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy Diana Gabaldon, as it reminded me a little bit of the Outlander series.
I also enjoyed the additional materials on the Good Morning America Book Club page, as The Frozen River was the GMA pick for December 2023.
