And when she saw what she had done...

On this date in 1893, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe, and it's not like I can let an anniversary like that just...slide by unmentioned, you know? Not when Maplecroft comes out in a couple of months! (September 2, to be precise.)

For what it's worth, Maplecroft opens in 1894, after the trial - and although the deaths and subsequent courtroom drama may launch the events in the story, those things are well in the past by the time the tale gets underway.

So did she do it? That's not the mystery. The mystery is why they died at all...and what will happen next.

In short, Maplecroft is all about Lizzie Borden fighting Cthulhu with an axe.



In somewhat longer form, it's a Victorian-style gothic novel, a love-letter to Dracula via Lovecraft. It's the story of a woman chasing down arcane science for answers – struggling to save a town that shuns her. It’s also the tale of her older sister, Emma – a brilliant invalid who masquerades as a man in order to publish in scientific journals; Doctor Seabury, the physician who defended Lizzie during her trial, and now sees all too clearly that the creeping threat is hideously unnatural; and Lizzie's young lover Nance O’Neil, a stunning stage actress whose stubborn devotion could take her closer to the truth than she ever ought to come.

And all the while, haunting the background entirely by accident...is a villain who doesn’t know he’s a villain. Of course, by the time he reaches Fall River, he doesn’t even know he’s human...

So hey, a few preorder links never hurt anyone, am I right?
Maplecroft at Amazon.
Maplecroft at B&N.
Maplecroft via Indiebound.