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“Jeffrey Marshall has made an impressive debut and a delightful contribution to Vermont history.” —Vermont Today
Based on a true story, a novel of abortion and its aftermath in antebellum Vermont
In 1830, Experience “Speedy” Goodrich died after undergoing an abortion in Burlington, Vermont. This tragedy and the resulting inquiry provide the foundation for Jeffrey D. Marshall's meticulously researched first novel. From the vibrant intellectual life of the University of Vermont to the public outcry over grave-robbing medical students in search of subjects for dissection, and from the progressive social movements of the day to the commercial bustle of a thriving inland port, Marshall offers a compelling portrait of the city and the era.
Speedy's death and the subsequent inquest are described by three narrators: Charles Daggett, a student at the UVM medical school who is accused of procuring--and some say actually performing--the abortion; Stephen Decatur Parker, an undergraduate who is drafted to serve as scribe for the inquest into Goodrich's death; and Nancy Goodrich Proctor, the sister of the deceased. Daggett and Proctor were real, while Parker is entirely fictional. Marshall gives them distinct and compelling voices as they recount the events of the tragedy and its personal consequences for each of them.
The 1830s were a time of great social, political, and religious upheaval. As in our own time, abortion, religious fundamentalism, and civil liberties were topics of heated debate. Marshall places Speedy Goodrich's story in the context of these enduring controversies in a work of fiction that is both dramatic and historically plausible.
“Jeffrey Marshall provides a well-rounded provocative historical fiction tale that parallels much of the contemporary abortion controversy. Readers are hooked from the opening brief statement by Adams and never lets go as each of the three other protagonists provides their account of the deadly event.”—Midwest Book Review
“[An] accomplished first novel . . . Marshall has drawn a rich and persuasive portrait of one of the most tumultuous and radical periods in American history.”—Valley News
“The writer of historical fiction sails on potentially perilous waters . . . Jeffrey Marshall . . . has taken on the challenge. In my view, he has succeeded. His novel tells a fictional story that holds our interest. It also paints a detailed and well-researched picture of Burlington in 1830 . . . Readers of many sorts of background and interest will find it entertaining, thoughtful, and educational.”
—Vermont History
“Jeffrey Marshall's evocation of the Champlain Valley, the city of Burlington, and the University of Vermont are superb. From lakeside docks teeming with commerce, to the dissecting lab of the UVM Medical college, to the quiet side streets where magnates meet to determine the future of the city, Marshall gets the historical details exactly right, at the same time that he never forgets that the chief purpose of a novel is to tell an entertaining story.”—Howard Frank Mosher
“Lavishly detailed and narrated in pitch-perfect nineteenth-century tones, The Inquest expands the historical thriller into something larger and finally more significant: a sustained consideration of medical ethics, and the outer limits of conscience. Marshall handles the explosive issues at the heart of his tale with a surgeon's precision and grace.”—Philip Baruth, author of The Dream of the White Village and The X President
Click here for TABLE OF CONTENTS
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JEFFREY D. MARSHALL is Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist at the University of Vermont, and editor of A War of the People: Vermont's Civil War Letters (UPNE, 1999). This is his first novel.
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