Slammerkin
by Emma Donoghue
Buy on AmazonSlammerkin is a historical fiction novel by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue. Published in 2000, it is her third novel and is loosely based on the account of 16-year-old Mary Saunders who was hanged for murdering her mistress, Joan Jones, in Monmouth, Wales, in 1764. The crime was motivated by her longing for "fine clothes". The title is taken from an obsolete term which was used for both an 18th-century woman's dressing gown and for a sexually promiscuous woman.
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"A friend said, "This will knock the breath out of you." He was right."
By the Book: Karin Slaughter · nytimes.com