First published 2024
October 1931. Winnie Ruth Judd steps off the train at Los Angeles station, her shipping trunks drawing unwanted attention from a wary porter. Inside those trunks lie the dismembered remains of two women she once called her closest friends. By the time authorities force the containers open, Winnie has vanished into the crowd. The twenty-six-year-old daughter of a reverend and wife of a doctor becomes the most wanted woman in America. The press dubs her the Trunk Murderess. Her Phoenix murder house turns into a carnival attraction. Everyone wants to know how this petite, educated, well-mannered woman could butcher two people she claimed to love. The answers lie buried in a web of jealousy, addiction, mental illness, and impossible choices. As Winnie faces trial, shocking revelations will rewrite the story everyone thinks they know about this condemned woman whose case will change legal history.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator, women-overcoming-adversity
Setting: Los Angeles, Phoenix
Period: 1931
380 pages · Hardcover · Little A
Content warnings: mental-illness, murder, violence