The Frozen River: A Novel

Martha Ballard....how I will miss you. I absolutely love the way Ariel wrote Martha's character. This book is going to be one that I reread, and when I do, it'll be because I miss Martha and want to spend time with her. ❤️ • This story begins with the body of a man being found frozen in the Kennebec River in 1700s Maine. Martha Ballard, a midwife, is summoned to inspect the body and declares the man has been murdered. The man?..... one of 2 alleged of raping a married woman, Rebecca Foster. We are carried through the story by our desire to find out who committed the murder, and if Rebecca will receive justice through the legal system during a time women had few rights. Along the way, we get a beautifully crafted look into day-to-day, small town life in 1700s America, social inequalities, motherhood, and childbearing, with Martha Ballard's journal entries being at the heart of this story. • There is no denying an incredible amount of research preceded this book. The realities of that time are wonderfully depicted. The hardships and prejudices. It causes one to take pause and consider what life was like for people back in that time, especially women, leaving you thankful for how things have changed. However, it also makes you consider what hasn't changed as much as you'd expect. • Again, I could not get enough of Martha. She is strong and bold FMC. I admired her courage and intellect. I also admired how she stood up for women, herself included, and fought to give them all a voice when women had none.🥰 She is a remarkable woman and such an inspiration!! • I enjoyed seeing glimpses of her and Ephraim's love story throughout the years. Ephraim was endearing. It's hard not to love him....for the man he was, the husband he was... and the provider he was. I enjoyed their family and life together. • I highly recommend this book! I did find myself losing track of who some people were, and it was a slower pace for a mystery. But this book embedded itself into my heart, so I have to give it 5🌟. Don't skip the author's note! This was my first Ariel Lawhon read, but it will not be my last.

Frozen River brilliantly depicts the life and role of women during the late 1700s in colonial America. The story follows Martha, a midwife, as she identifies cause of death and solves the murder of a man. This book is the perfect example of why I love historical fiction so much. The author demonstrates the unfair mistreatment of women by men, the courts and society as a whole. The relationship between Martha and her husband Ephraim is unlike most marriages of their time. He is an honorable man who supports his wife and creates space for Martha to lean into her own power and thrive. Frozen River is an educational tale with a beautiful relationship and a strong thought provoking woman, I would consider it a must read!

This has to be the best book I have read in a long time. What a story this author wrote. I have read many good books where I carry the characters with me for days afterwards but this book - I would love to continue the read more about all of them. Usually I finish a book and by next day have started a new one but this time I need to just sit back and appreciate what a great book this is.

Once I started this book I could not put it down. The depiction of life as a midwife and the manner in which life was lived are well written. I appreciated the complex and tender love of the midwives husband. The clever and competent women in the story are appreciated. The topic of physical abuse was handled respectfully and speaks in a genuine way about the emotions that result from abuse. Sad, thoughtful, brave, and victorious. Good read.

Martha Ballard, mid-wife and healer, wife of Ephraim, and mother of six surviving children, has delivered hundreds of babies in the last three decades. She never said no to a woman in labor. No matter whether it was daylight or dark or what the weather was in northern Maine, when she was needed, Martha would saddle her horse, Brutus, and go. Daily she faithfully wrote in the leather bound journals her husband bought for her. She documented the weather, each mother and birth she attended, and other pertinent information she had witnessed each day.

The book begins with a life entering the world and a life snuffed out and thrown in the iced filled Kennebec River which runs through the middle of community of Hallowell, Maine. It took seven men to cut through the ice and pull the dead man out of the river. Martha was called to identify the body and determine the cause of his death. After examining the body and coming to a decision of how he died, Martha was challenged by the new doctor in town Benjamin Page MD - a smug, Harvard educated, pompous, arrogant physician new to the community. Dr. Page not only challenged her decision as to how the man had died, he continued to be a thorn in her side throughout most of the book.

Using Martha Ballard’s actual diaries, Ariel Lawhon has crafted a riveting fictionalized tale of birthing babies, corrupt government officials, biased laws and hard court rulings against women. Of rape. Of murder. Of family and what life was like for women who lived in 18th Century America. Martha was a champion of women’s rights before the term was even coined.

When starting this book, immediately reader feels that he or she is part of the community and is invested in Martha’s life and the lives of the vulnerable women she assists. This well written, well researched novel is a five star read for me and one on my favorites so far this year. The action never stops. Make sure you read the author’s extensive notes at the end of the book. You will miss out on the real story if you don’t!

The Frozen River is my first Ariel Lawhon book. It will not be my last. Don’t miss this book depicting the incredible strength Martha Ballard displays no matter what she faces.

In Revolutionary Maine, midwife Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body of a man pulled out of the frozen Kennebec River. Based on her examination, she determines that he has been murdered. Having been accused of rape, theories abound regarding what actually happened to him, especially when a young new doctor rules the death accidental. In the extremely small town of Hallowell, secrets and lies run deep. As the town midwife, Martha knows a lot more about what goes on behind closed doors than most. Her search for the truth leads her down a path that may make her question everything she holds dear.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story from the first page to the last. Intricately written, there were so many complex characters, each with pieces of their lives overlapping within different circles. Every time you think you know where a plot line is headed, something happens that turns it in a different direction. As with any well done historical fiction piece, The Frozen River paints a vivid picture of a time long ago, and the reader becomes immersed in a world where a brand new America is still trying to figure out the laws to govern its citizens.

I highly recommend reading the author’s note at the end. This is a fictional account of actual events. It is incredibly interesting to see how the author became inspired to write this story, and the process by which she went about bringing her characters to life.

Many years ago, I read 'A Midwife's Tale,' a biography of Martha Ballard based on her diary by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. In her end note, Lawhon mentions that she, too, found this book fascinating, and for years she wanted to write a novel about Ballard. The result is 'The Frozen River. It covers the time from November 1789, when the river froze, to April 1790, when the thaw begins. Lawhon prides herself on following historical facts, but she does admit to compressing time in her novel as well as deleting and adding details. And a lot of the story is speculation on what might have happened. Nevertheless, it's a compelling story and provides a fascinating look at life in America just a few years after the Constitution was adopted.

Martha Ballard's days are filled with the usual woman's work: cooking, cleaning, marketing, raising children. Except that she is a midwife and must drop everything when she gets the call. Through her, Lawhon gives the reader lots of details about the practice of midwifery. Since, initially, there is no doctor in the town, Martha is also called upon when her neighbors are ill, wounded, or need other medical assistance, and she is also called to examine dead bodies to give her opinion on the cause of death. This is how she gets caught up in the investigation of a man whose body was chopped from the river ice. She attests that many of the marks on his body seem to have been inflicted not by hitting rocks and debris as he floated along but that he has marks on his neck that show he was hanged before being thrown into the river. Her involvement increases when she learns that one of her sons had an altercation with the dead man the previous night, and when her friend Rebecca Foster confesses that she was raped by two men, one the dead man and the other a prominent town official.

Lawhon has effectively combined biographical fiction with historical mystery. I am not particularly a fan of the second, but the mystery, discoveries, hearings, testimonies, and manipulations of John North, the local justice accused of rape, to monopolize local woodlands and defame Martha and Rebecca are very well integrated into daily life, social customs and structure, and the foibles of a new country's government and flawed justice system. I enjoyed the novel and her expansion of Martha Ballard's character.