“Red Bird Sings” by Aiofe Fitzpatrick
This first novel is an interesting read and is based on a real life murder trial in West Virginia back in 1897. The author succeeds on all fronts, it is readable, the story beguiling and the cóurtroom scenes work – avoiding any tedium.
Zona Heaster Shue and Lucy Frye are best friends from childhood; well at least until Trout Shue, a blacksmith, arrives in town and sweeps Zona off her feet and soon marries her driving a wedge between the two. A matter of just a few months later Zona is dead, her death initially being put down to natural causes, but Lucy and Zona’s mother, Mary Jane, are far from convinced.
Zona has a past having given birth to a daughter, Elizabeth out of wedlock; an event that her mother had managed to keep totally secret. Baby Elizabeth was whisked off, adopted by a wealthy Richmond family and the book opens with the first of five letters Zona writes with Lucy’s help and Lucy’s typewriter explaining why and how she gave up her baby at birth. The novel is punctuated with the other letters; all of which Zona imagines being delivered to her grown up daughter in due course of time.
Mary Jane is “visited” by her daughter who rests unsettled in her grave until the authorities intervene and Zona is exhumed for a full autopsy after which Trout is arrested and charged with murdering his wife, a charge to which he pleads “Not Guilty”.
In addition to recounting the trial the book records their back stories leading up to the court case. How the couple meet and marry and how Trout closes out Mary Jane and her family as well as Lucy; all the time appearing likeable, his skill with horses and his craftmanship making him a popular new arrival in Greenbrier County, where everyone knows everybody, as in any small town.
Zona’s father Jacob seemingly on his son-in-law’s side and against his wife’s – the Heaster parents are an interesting couple with a large family.
The apparitions Mary Jane experiences and the letters that Lucy holds are all crucial to the court case where there is limited evidence of Trout’s guilt or as he claims, innocence. The initial ineptitude of the doctor had muddied the waters and Trout’s arrogant dismissal and relaxed amicable character make the outcome of the trial very uncertain. However Zona does not rest in peace and her visitations to her mother, though discarded as hearsay or signs of Mary Jane’s questionable sanity, provide for an unusual conclusion to this readable approachable novel, another one which I will suggest, if asked, recommend for reading groups.
