Employing a variety of narratives-Grace's own, Dr. Hypnotism finally "restores" her memory (or is Grace misleading Jordan?), with results that are both shocking and ambiguous. On she goes until she calmly relates the events that led up to the murders, and her attempted escape with McDermott afterward. Grace tells him of her first commission as a laundry maid in a grand house, and of her dear friend Mary, dead at 16 from a botched abortion. A convert to the new field of psychiatry, Jordan is hoping to help Grace recover her memory of the murders, which she claims no recollection of. Simon Jordan, who has come to investigate the sanity of Grace after some 16 years of incarceration. Anchoring the narrative is the arrival of Dr. Atwood reimagines Grace's story, and with delicate skill all but replaces history with her chronicle of events. Some felt her an innocent dupe, others thought her a cold-blooded murderer the truth remains elusive. The trial was a titillating sensation McDermott was hanged, and Grace was given the dubious mercy of life imprisonment. As notorious as our own Lizzy Borden, Grace Marks was barely 16 when she and James McDermott were arrested in 1843 for the brutal murder of their employer Thomas Kinnear and his pregnant mistress/housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. A fascinating elaboration-and somewhat of a departure for Atwood (The Robber Bride, 1993, etc.)-of the life of Grace Marks, one of Canada's more infamous killers.
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