Interesting true crime book that provides a bit of a history lesson as well, and will attract enthusiasts of both.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Jeannie’s Demise by Ian Radforth is a victorian melodrama that has a poor minister’s daughter who died getting an abortion. The horrible medical conditions along with the concept of who a young woman belongs to are enough to make you want to howl.

Jeannie is a minister’s daughter who comes to Toronto for a better life; she joins her family (and she wasn’t happy about being uprooted) and agrees to work on a farm. This was her past life because in those first few pages you meet her, Jeannie is dead and naked in a box. The box was half-buried in a ditch.

The abortionists are quickly caught and they go to trial to defend their actions. But what stands out so starkly is how little medical training they had and how little they cared. They were performing a service and that was all there was to it.

I really wanted the story to be more readable. The author did a ton of research. That’s definitely clear. But it’s presented in the way of a term paper. The author is using the story to provide readability when he should have framed the narrative in a way that makes it less like reading archive papers. It was an interesting book but could have been much more exciting.

*Many thanks to Ian Radforth, Between the Lines, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
An account of what happened to a young woman, Jane Gilmour, after an illegal abortion was performed in 1875 in Toronto, which resulted in her premature death.
A solid and well-documented read of the times when abortion could not be performed by the professionals and thus was taken over by 'abortionists' some of whom had no medical training or at least did it undercover, with the use of primitive tools.
The author draws on police reports, letters and trial documents, and gives clear portrayal of Jane and her fate.
The case of Jeannie Gilmour is typical of women in those days, left to themselves when they got pregnant with the child they did not want or could not have for mainly social reasons.
In general, the book proves the thesis that abortion being illegal opens routes to clandestine operations which often end in serious injuries or even death of the women. It seems that nothing has changed for over 150 years.

An intriguing and well-written narrative about backstreet abortionists tried and convicted of murder during the course of an illegal abortion in the Victorian era in Canada. Chronological and detailed narrative of the events leading up to the trial, the trial and conviction, and the subsequent results for the convicted abortionists and laws during this time.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I maybe got a quarter to a third of the way through on this book, and I was really enjoying it! Unfortunately, it was accidentally deleted from my Kindle app and I couldn't figure out any way to get it back to finish the book. I found the story compelling from the beginning, and surprised at how well researched the individuals and events were, given how this was quite some time ago and nobody involved was necessarily well known. I appreciated the telling of an everyday woman stuck in a difficult situation when she finds herself pregnant, without a partner, and within a devoutly religious family. Abortion was illegal at this time, and I worry for those in similar situations today. I felt very much for Jeannie, who must have felt so alone and had only herself to rely on. I would have liked to have finished this book, too bad for the tech issues!! Hopefully I'll be able to finish this in the future another way.

First sentence: Growing impatient, Lovell took an axe and broke open the box. Inside he found some straw, a white chemise, and the naked body of a young woman. A few hours later, Coroner E.C. Fisher held an inquest nearby at Mrs. Mantle’s Robin Hood Hotel on Dundas Street. Two physicians, who had already performed a post-mortem examination of the body, reported that the deceased was an otherwise robust and healthy woman whose death was caused by a violent abortion. The jury at the inquest concluded that there had been a wilful murder of “an unknown woman” by some “person or persons unknown.”

Premise/plot: Jeannie's Demise is an up-close-and-personal, behind-the-scenes glimpse at abortion on trial in Ontario Canada in 1875. In the summer of that year, Jeannie Gilmour got an abortion and died as a result of complications. That fall and winter her two abortionists--husband and wife--went on trial. This news story was covered widely and broadly. (Though for the record, the two were on trial for murdering Jeannie and not for murdering the unborn child.) The book chronicles the case in great depth giving background and context.

My thoughts: I love a good true crime book occasionally. This one fits into that category nicely enough. It is a detailed accounting of three trials: the first trial being that of the two accused abortionists (abortion was illegal in 1875), the second trial being that of the accused seducer, the third being that of a man accused of helping dispose of the body via a coffin in a wagon. Readers get a glimpse of how the police department worked the case, how the prosecution and defense handled the case, the evidence, the testimonies and witnesses. One also definitely got a glimpse of how the media reacted to the case AND influenced the case. One also saw some statistics.

If the book had kept this a book about the past, it perhaps would have set better with me. One could read about the facts of the case--in the past--without trying to moralize, preach, or reveal a modern AGENDA to the case.
It wasn't until the last page or possibly two that the pro-choice cause is championed and glorified. He leaves readers with a warning that there are some in the United States that want to rob women of their oh-so-human right to have access to abortions.

I think both pro-life and pro-choice readers can agree that illegal abortions can be dangerous and risky to women. But to be fair, in 1875 legal or illegal abortion would have been risky. As was childbirth itself it 1875. There was so much about germs and bacteria and care that doctors, midwives, nurses, the general public did not know that lives were put at risk. Medicine has come a long way since the nineteenth century.