The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon Book Guide

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is a historical novel inspired by a true story bringing the diary of midwife Martha Ballard to life against the backdrop of a harsh Maine winter. Her keen observations guide us through the daily struggles and quiet strengths of frontier life, until the discovery of a frozen body pulls her into a dangerous web of community secrets and injustice.

The story opens in the biting cold of November 1789 in Hallowell, Maine. The Kennebec River, a vital artery for the town, is already succumbing to an early, brutal freeze. Martha Ballard, a seasoned and respected midwife, navigates the treacherous conditions to attend the birth of Betsy Clark’s third daughter. Martha is depicted as pragmatic, observant, and deeply committed to the women she serves, noting she has never lost a mother in childbirth. The atmosphere is thick with the impending harshness of winter and the everyday realities of frontier life.

This routine is soon disrupted. While Martha rests after the Clark delivery, she is urgently summoned. A body has been discovered, entombed in the rapidly freezing Kennebec River. Gathered at Pollard’s Tavern, the makeshift mortuary, Martha examines the corpse of Joshua Burgess. While others, including the newly arrived, Harvard-educated Dr. Benjamin Page, suggest accidental drowning or injuries sustained amidst the river ice, Martha’s experienced eye tells a different story. She finds evidence of a severe beating and distinct rope burns indicating Burgess was hanged before entering the water. Her conclusion: murder. This instantly sets her at odds with Dr. Page, who dismisses her findings, representing the clash between experienced female intuition and formal male authority. Why would their findings be so different?

The discovery of Burgess’s body is fraught with underlying tension because he, along with the influential local judge and landowner Colonel Joseph North, stands accused of raping Rebecca Foster months earlier, in August 1789. Martha had attended Rebecca in the aftermath, documenting her injuries and listening to her harrowing account in the privacy of her midwife’s diary – a meticulous record she keeps of her days, deliveries, and the town’s happenings. Martha staunchly believes Rebecca, but the community is divided, with many siding with the powerful men.

As the “Year of the Long Winter” tightens its grip, isolating Hallowell, Martha must navigate not only the elements but also the simmering suspicions and social divisions. Dr. Page actively works to undermine her authority, while Colonel North subtly threatens her, aware of her potential testimony. Martha’s investigation into Burgess’s death intertwines with her commitment to supporting Rebecca and seeking justice, all while managing her large family and midwifery duties. Her husband, Ephraim, is her steadfast support, though her children present their own challenges: oldest son Cyrus becomes a suspect due to a public fight with Burgess shortly before his death; son Jonathan grapples with his own secrets, including an entanglement with Sally Pierce (the Fosters’ former maid) that results in an illegitimate child; daughters Hannah and Dolly navigate their own courtships with local boys Moses Pollard and the intriguing court officer Barnabas Lambard.

Key events unfold through Martha’s dated journal entries and recollections: the tense courtroom session where Dr. Page contradicts Martha’s findings about Burgess; Sally Pierce’s damaging (and false) testimony accusing Rebecca’s husband, Isaac, based on a misheard statement; Martha’s discovery of letters in Burgess’s saddlebag revealing North planned to steal the Ballards’ land and mill rights, likely using the property to buy Burgess’s silence or complicity regarding the rape; a terrifying confrontation where North attacks Martha at the Ballard mill, leading her to defend herself violently, leaving him severely wounded with his own knife, “Revenge.”

The mystery of Burgess’s death finds its resolution not with North or Cyrus, but elsewhere. Martha observes Sam Dawin (one of the men who found Burgess’s body) carrying a distinctive strip of lace – identical to the one Rebecca described Burgess tearing from her shift. This leads to a quiet confession: Burgess had also assaulted Sam’s fiancée, May Kimble, on the night of the Frolic. Consumed by rage and disillusioned with the legal system after North’s acquittal seemed likely, Sam, aided by Martha’s son Jonathan, hunted Burgess down, beat him, and hanged him. Was this a different kind of justice?

The novel culminates in the Supreme Judicial Court trial of Joseph North for the attempted rape of Rebecca Foster, held in Pownalboro. Rebecca, now heavily pregnant with the child conceived from the assault and unwilling to face her community again, does not attend. Martha presents her diary as crucial evidence, corroborating the timing and details of Rebecca’s deposition. Despite Martha’s testimony and the physical evidence of the pregnancy, North’s lawyer argues lack of direct witnesses to the crime itself. Joseph North is ultimately acquitted of the charge.

Though legal justice fails Rebecca, North does not escape unscathed, bearing the permanent physical consequences of Martha’s defense at the mill. As the harsh winter finally breaks and the Kennebec River thaws, Martha continues her work. The final scene shows Tempest, the silver fox Martha encountered earlier – a creature embodying wildness and perhaps a different kind of knowing – watching over the valley with her new kits, suggesting the persistence of life and perhaps a more natural, untamed form of order returning to Hallowell.