This book covers the Smuttynose Ax Murders of 1873. Smuttynose Island is an island of almost 30 acres that is part of a grouping of islands, called the Isles of Shoals. These islands are located in New Hampshire and Maine. On the night of March 06, 1873, Maren Hontvet, her sister, Karen, and her sister in law, Anethe were asleep in the house owned by Maren and her husband. An intruder entered the house and murdered two of the women, leaving one to escape. Help was dispatched to the house, and an investigation took place. A suspect was immediately named and apprehended. The evidence of this case was interesting and so were the conspiracy theories of some of the other residents.

This book is currently available to listen to on Audible Plus with your membership. It was a little less than a 14 hour listen for me, but I do have my listening speed up to 1.3-1.5, depending on the narrator. I picked this book out because I really like the older true crime cases, specifically Victorian Era crimes. If you are interested in state history, this could work for both New Hampshire and Maine. I learned that the murder weapon is on display at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, so if you are interested and near that area, you can check it out and learn about the case. As far as this book goes, the writing style was amazing. I really enjoyed the way that this author was able to tell this story in a way that was factual but that also kept my attention. I usually lose interest in super long audiobooks, but I did not lose interest in this one. The author absolutely did his research on this book. I have learned since that he has other books, and I am interested in checking those out as well.