The Murderess: A Novel

by Laurie Notaro

Overview

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurie Notaro comes a haunting true-crime novel about Winnie Ruth Judd, one of the twentieth century’s most notorious and enigmatic killers.

It’s October 1931. When Winnie Ruth Judd arrives at the Los Angeles train station from Phoenix, her shipping trunks catch the attention of a suspicious porter. By the time they’re pried open, revealing the dismembered bodies of two women inside, Ruth has disappeared into the crowd.

The search for, and eventual apprehension of, the Trunk Murderess quickly becomes a headline-making sensation. Even the Phoenix murder house is a sideshow attraction. The one question on everyone’s lips: How could a twenty-six-year-old reverend’s daughter and doctor’s wife—petite, pretty, well educated, and poised—commit such a heinous act on two people she’d called “my dearest friends in the world”? Everyone has their theories and judgments, but no one knows the whole truth.

What unfolds in this gripping work of true-crime fiction is a collision of jealousy, drug addiction, insanity, rage, and inescapable choices. At its heart, a condemned and tragic mystery woman whose trial—and its shocking twists—will make history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662512216
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	10/08/2024
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Laurie Notaro is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Crossing the Horizon, Spooky Little Girl, and There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell, as well as essay collections and numerous works of nonfiction. A finalist for the Thurber Prize, Laurie was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent the remainder of her formative years in Phoenix, Arizona, where she created something of a checkered past. Laurie now resides in Eugene, Oregon, has a cute dog and a nice husband, and misses Mexican food like it was her youth. For more information, visit www.laurienotaro.com.

Editorial Reviews

Notaro’s expertise shines best in the neutral tone with which she breathes new life into an old story…An impressive biographical crime novel, well worth reading.” —Historical Novels Review

“As complex as it is deftly crafted—this is a pulse-pounding, page-turning, heartbreaking account of the misunderstood woman behind a sensational news story that gripped a nation. A haunting novel that never lets the reader go.” —Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Laurie Notaro

“Fans of Notaro’s essays will identify and appreciate the vein of absurdity and irony running throughout this novel, but there is also a pulsing brutality and shocking tragedy at its heart…Fact may still remain stranger than fiction, but Notaro’s compelling novel gives truth a run for the money.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Notaro portrays this exciting sliver of time with historical accuracy, providing an authentic glimpse of the era (including photographs), and then adds a pump of adrenaline by including dialogue and drama of her own imagination, creating a captivating historical fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[Notaro] leverages her…keen eye for human foibles in an ambitious fictionalized account. [An] action-packed, character-rich romp.” —Publishers Weekly

“Best known for her offbeat essays on contemporary topics, Notaro breaks new literary ground and demonstrates an intuitive sense of narrative and indelible appreciation for history’s ironies.” —Booklist

“Fascinating…Well-researched novelization…A compelling story.” —USA Today

From the Publisher

2024-08-30
A mysterious young woman becomes the focal point of a true-crime novel about a grisly, Depression-era crime of passion.

When Los Angeles train station authorities force open two leaking, putrid-smelling trunks, the dismembered female bodies they find horrify them. Yet what leaves them especially aghast is the idea that Ruth Judd, the pretty young woman who presents a claim ticket for the trunks, could possibly be involved in what clearly appears to be murder. Notaro carefully reconstructs the Depression-era period in which this real-life crime took place and presents a sympathetic portrayal of Ruth, who manages to walk out of the baggage claim but is quickly identified as a suspect. In the narrative that follows the bodies’ discovery, Notaro alternates a chronicle of the hunt for Ruth with sections told from her point of view that reveal her motivations. A painful youth, marriage to a drug-addicted WWI veteran named Doctor, and a forced abortion at Doctor’s hands form the cornerstones of her troubled personality. She developed a lifelong obsession with the baby she lost and delusions that the child still lives. After Ruth and Doctor were temporarily separated, she eventually wound up in Phoenix, where she fell in love with Jack, a married—and unscrupulous—businessman. He got her a job at a clinic, which led to her friendship with the two lesbians who became the murder victims. As complex as it is deftly crafted—weaving newspaper accounts and letters written by the real-life Ruth within a compelling fictional web—this is a pulse-pounding, page-turning, heartbreaking account of the misunderstood woman behind a sensational news story that gripped a nation.

A haunting novel that never lets the reader go.

Kirkus Reviews