Description

Instant USA Today Bestseller
One of Amazon’s Best History Books of January

Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, and true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson unearths the gripping true story of a notorious 1832 murder case that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and led to the publication of America’s first true-crime book.

On a frigid winter day in a small New England town, Sarah Maria Cornell was discovered dead in a secluded farmyard. As investigators delved into her troubled past, they uncovered a secret correspondence with Reverend Ephraim Avery, a charismatic Methodist minister. Suspicion mounted—was Sarah’s death a tragic suicide, or was something far more sinister at play?

As the case gripped the nation, Victorian writer Catharine Read Arnold Williams became determined to uncover the truth. She immersed herself in the unfolding trial and chronicled the events in Fall River, a book many consider the first American true-crime narrative. The murder sparked heated debates and even inspired The Scarlet Letter, yet Avery was never convicted, leaving lingering doubts that have persisted for nearly two centuries.

In The Sinners All Bow, Kate Winkler Dawson revisits this haunting mystery, continuing the work Williams began long ago. Utilizing modern investigative techniques—including forensic knot analysis and criminal profiling, a method developed decades later during the hunt for Jack the Ripper—Dawson pieces together the missing elements of the case. Through the stories of three women who dared to challenge societal expectations, she uncovers long-buried truths, confronting a history that still echoes today.