Blood Red Roses

by Margaret Lawrence

Book Overview

When midwife Hannah Trevor, fighting for custody of her eight-year-old daughter in 1786 Maine, becomes a suspect in the murder of a man from her past, she must struggle to clear her name and find the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380788802
• ISBN13: 9780380788804
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Even Better than Hearts and Bones

Since there's no 5+ button, I have to type out how wonderful I think this book is. I was hooked on Hannah Trevor, the Maine midwife in post-revolutionary times, after the first book, Hearts and Bones. Not only did Margaret Lawrence capture with compassion and accuracy the life experiences of a midwife in the wilderness, she managed to construct a fairly suspenseful mystery. While Hearts and Bones was as good as any Anne Perry novel, Blood Red Roses is simply magnificent in plot, detail, and narrative.In this second book Hannah discovers the fate of the husband she has long thought dead. This brings her into the eye of the storm in Rufford, and the simmering animosities of the community are directed at her. There are also developments in the life of her deaf and mute daughter Jennet, and in her passion for Ralph Josselin, a married landowner. For anyone who has ever loved deeply this book is just riveting since you can feel Hannah's bottled-up feelings bursting from every page. A taut, satisfying, and mystifying sequel.

Kept me up all night

I fell in love with historical mysteries starting w/Anne Perry. Suddenly there are quite a few series and each of them have their strengths. I enjoyed Margaret Lawrence's first book enough to buy the second. From the outset, I found myself once again unable to piece together enough of the clues that were under my nose to solve the mystery until almost the end. I enjoy the characters, who are well written and not anachronistic at all. I also find myself appalled at the hardships of a time period that has been far too romanticized. I know I will continue with this series and strongly recommend it to anyone who can take the time out of their busy day (and night) to read this book.

A Must Read...

This wonderful book, the second in a series about Hannah Trevor a midwife in Colonial America, is a must read for all lovers of history and/or mystery. Margaret Lawrence is a talented author who has obviously done a great deal of research about Colonial America and it's inhabitants. After reading this book and Blood Read Roses, I became very grateful to be a woman of the 20th century!

Wow!

This book, along with the first book in the Hannah Trevor series, is clever, well researched and haunting. I felt drained after reading both books and had to read at least three or four light hearted books in between. I think Margaret Lawrence is one of the most gifted mystery writers out there today, and anybody who is not reading her because they don't read "historical" mysteries, needs to give her a try.

Dark and deeply satisfying.

Intriguing characters, an unusual historical setting and complex plotting make Blood Red Roses a fitting follow-up to Margaret Lawrence's Hearts and Bones. In the difficult years following the Revolutionary War, midwife and Royalist widow Hannah Trevor struggles to keep her deaf-mute daughter from being taken from her and indentured as a servant. Few novels deal with the post-revolutionary era, when many were disillusioned with the way their new country was developing, and former Patriots faced losing their land or were threatened with debtors' prison under new tax codes. Many middle-class Tories who had fled to England or Canada were returning home and attempting to reestablish themselves in the new United States. The Maine village of Rufford is still reeling from the divisions of war and many cruel memories are awakened when a woman and her children are murdered. Conclusions jump to Hannah, who, with her Tory connections and illegitimate child, has few defenses. Can she clear herself or must she leave? And what of her daughter's father, the man she loves but cannot have? Margaret Lawrence has created conflicted, appealing characters, surrounded them with rich historical detail and the result is a tremendously satisfying book that can be enjoyed as a mystery, historical fiction or romantic suspense. Developments in the relationship between Hannah and the man she loves makes Blood Red Roses very different from Hearts and Bones and promises that the next book (please let there be one!) will have new pleasures to offer.