Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne

"On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery's lawyers) claimed her death was suicide--but others weren't so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative: Fall River. The case and Williams's book became a sensation--one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell's death. ... In [this account], ... true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before"--