For a book with such a lurid, sensational title, this was actually a bit of a snore. The writing was quite dry and focused on description. Lots of architecture details, lots of legalese, and quite a few moments of great, so you researched that but wow you really didn't need to include it here (see photo of Evelyn Nesbit with bird hat).

That said, a timely true crime tale for the #MeToo moment, but not one that actually focuses on the girl on the swing (and WTF is up with the fucking swing Stanford White?!). Instead, we get more of the trial of Evelyn Nesbit's husband for shooting her rapist in cold blood many years after the rape was committed, long before Evelyn had even met her husband Harry Thaw. I was grateful that the author acknowledge Evelyn's pawn status in this entire affair, but wasn't super pleased he decided to include a post-epilogue note that questioned the veracity of her account of the rape. Of course we can't really know whether it occurred. Can we just believe her?

The husband/murderer Thaw, a disturbed rich boy, was not super fun to read about. I was appalled by the descriptions of the "asylums" of the early 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s.

I read this to check off my 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge "read a True Crime story."