Mrs. Dodge and the House Painter: A True Story of Death in New England

in September 1911 a handsome, middle-aged widow in a small New England town is quietly doing her chores on a Saturday morning — she has the ironing board out, and maybe she has already sprinkled the curtains she is about to press, and she is chatting with the guy she’s hired to paint a bedroom. The next thing you know, all hell has broken loose: There is blood, and chaos, and neighbors tromping in and out, littering the floor with golden leaves from hemlocks and maples, and there are police, doctors, the local Congregational minister and his wife, and an open bottle of brandy. Nothing is ever the same for the widow from that day forward. The painter is dead, shot through the heart.

This story is told in an creative and artful way through the actual reporting from newspapers of the past. Follow the fascinating tale just the way people did it before the days of radio and television. Did she do the crime, and must she pay the time? Fully illustrated.

This is the second book of the Read It Again! series.