Letters, on the Subject of the Concert of Princes: And the Dismemberment of Poland and France (1793)

The year is 1899. The place is Sing Sing Prison in New York. Never before has a woman been executed by the prison’s new device for capital punishment-the electric chair. But all that will change tomorrow, when Martha Place is scheduled to die in the Death Chamber at Sing Sing for a mysterious-and murderous-household crime spree. Martha has been unable to tell her story in court, since to do so would reveal publicly what she must conceal. Finally, in the nocturnal isolation of her cell with her only friend, the Night Matron, by her side, Martha feels compelled to break her long silence and tell the truth behind the headlines. At once a tale of hidden obsession and a meditation on the cathartic power of storytelling, Martha Place is a Victorian noir novel that takes the reader on a journey through the life of an unforgettable heroine.