Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches by
Cherie Priest
Lizbeth Borden, made famous because
of the double homicide by axe she was acquitted of at trial, has moved to the
outskirts of Fall River, Massachusetts with her sister Emma. Their house by the sea, Maplecroft, is ideal
for their current activities: saving the people of Fall River from the
creatures that sometimes come up from the sea as well as the ailments that
occasionally affect the hapless residents.
Each chapter in the book is voiced
by another character including Lizzie, her girlfriend Nance, the local doctor,
Emma and other characters like a Professor from Miskatonic University. For those in the know that reference to
Miskatonic U. made you smile because it’s the fictional creation of H.P.
Lovecraft many of his Cthulhu stories reference in one way or another. So Lizzie and her axe are saving us all from
the tentacled denizens of the deep. It’s
a neat concept and I did enjoy the mashup.
It was also really interesting to have an apocalyptic type of feel to a
story that takes place in the late 1800s.
While technology is still in its infancy it is the heyday of amateur
scientists and naturalists and hearing how they test and observe new life forms
is disconcerting knowing how things would be done now, but interesting
nonetheless.
