The Frozen River

The Frozen River is a 2023 historical fiction thriller by Ariel Lawhon following Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife in Maine, as she leverages her standing as a medical professional to investigate two crimes: a murder and a rape. This book is the sixth of Lawhon’s historical fiction novels, all of which center on notable female protagonists. Lawhon is known for writing “biographical fiction” that adheres closely to the truth of her heroines’ lives, but The Frozen River breaks this trend in that it is highly conjectural. Many of the key plot points of the book are entirely fabricated. Using Martha Ballard’s life, as recorded in her journal, and the biography written by Laura Thatcher Ulrich—A Midwife’s Tale (1990)—as loose guidelines, Lawhon explores themes of Puritan Shame Culture and Gender Oppression, The Courtroom as a Theatrical Spectacle, and Familial Loyalty in the Face of Suspicion.

This guide refers to the 2023 Kindle e-book edition of the text, published by Doubleday.

Content Warning: The source text for this guide contains frequent discussions of rape, sexual assault, murder, historical execution practices, pregnancy loss, child loss, and descriptions of racism.

Plot Summary

As the Kennebec River begins to freeze in the winter of 1789, a corpse floats down it and becomes trapped in the ice. Martha Ballard, midwife for the town of Hallowell, Maine, arrives to examine the body. She identifies it as Joshua Burgess and determines his cause of death to be murder by hanging, though no rope was found with the body. Burgess was the subject of a recent town scandal; the parson’s wife, Rebecca Foster, was raped, and named Burgess as one of her attackers. The other assailant was Joseph North, a colonel and judge on the local court circuit.

A doctor named Page arrives and claims that it is his job to perform the autopsy, rather than Martha’s. Harvard-educated, Page has a higher standing in the eyes of the community. Martha returns home to her family mill, where her two daughters, Hannah and Dolly, are tending to Sam Dawin, the man who discovered Burgess’s body. Sam fell into the icy water and nearly died in the process. He confirms for Martha that he saw no rope with the body in the river. Martha also learns that prior to the murder, her son Cyrus, who is mute, got into a fight with Burgess at the town dance.

Martha tells Rebecca that Burgess has been murdered. Rebecca expresses hope that her husband was the one who killed him and tells Martha that she is pregnant as a result of the rape. Rebecca’s housekeeper, Sally Pierce, eavesdrops on their conversation. At the court hearing, presided over by North himself, Sally accuses Isaac Foster of murdering Burgess and Rebecca of fornication, based on what she overheard. Page disagrees with Martha’s autopsy report, testifying that Burgess could not have been hanged, since there was no rope found with his body. Biased, North agrees with Page’s findings, and upholds the accusations of fornication against Rebecca. Martha protests, but is held in contempt of court, and her husband, Ephraim, is forced to escort her out.

North pressures Ephraim to do a surveying job that will require him to be away for weeks. He wants Ephraim gone from town at the upcoming court date, since Martha will not be allowed to testify without her husband present. Martha continues work but finds that Page is stealing clients from her. Even worse, he is repeatedly responsible for stillbirths. Barnabas Lambard, an officer of the court, comes to the mill to ask where he can find Joshua Burgess. Realizing that Lambard is unaware of the murder, Martha sends him to the tavern without explanation, hoping that he will examine the body and conclude murder to be the cause of death. Later, Martha defends Sarah White, a woman whose child was born out of wedlock, from malicious gossip. The gossipers retaliate by hiring Page to deliver their babies, which are all tragically stillborn.

With the court date approaching, North visits the mill, aiming to intimidate Martha into silence. He insinuates that Cyrus will be charged with Burgess’s murder. Ephraim sends a message that he will be at the court, arriving in time to ensure that Martha is allowed to testify. In her testimony, Martha supports Rebecca’s rape accusation and provides her journal as evidence. The court finds that North had a conflict of interest in declaring Burgess’s murder accidental, and in charging Rebecca with fornication. They defer judgment to a later date.

A mysterious Black midwife, known only as Doctor, arrives in town to treat women covertly. Martha goes to visit Doctor to ask for help regarding Rebecca Foster’s treatment. Having smelled savine tea in Rebecca’s tin, Martha suspects that she is trying to abort the unwanted pregnancy and worries that the savine will have adverse effects. Doctor reassures Martha otherwise. Martha sees Sam Dawin and his new wife, May, entering Doctor’s cabin. She later finds out that May Dawin is pregnant, and that the baby was conceived out of wedlock.

Both Cyrus and Sarah have poor marriage prospects, and Martha believes that they would make a good match. However, since Cyrus cannot speak and Sarah cannot read, they are unable to communicate with one another. Martha plans to teach Sarah to read and invites her to an upcoming dance at the mill. At the dance, Martha sees her son Jonathan and Sam in a serious conversation. She also discovers Jonathan and Sally in flagrante, though Jonathan has no intention of marrying Sally.

The Court of Common Pleas assembles to hear arguments in the rape and murder cases. Lambard supports Martha’s theory of murder based on his own inspection of the body, and Page retorts that he would have suspected murder had he known about Cyrus’s fight with Burgess. This testimony places Cyrus under suspicion. Turning to the rape case, Rebecca provides a detailed, emotional account of her ordeal. The court charges North with rape, but he flees the room. Shortly after, Lambard arrests Cyrus for Burgess’s murder.

Word spreads around town that Page has a habit of delivering stillborns. Martha finds herself busy with midwifery once again, even delivering Page’s own baby. In return, she makes Page promise never to deliver another baby in Hallowell. On her way home, she stops by the general store, where she learns the owner is planning to sell it. He also tells her that North “lost his soul” during the Seven Years’ War, when he began scalping Indigenous people for profit. Despite North’s villainy, neither criminal case progresses as desired; Cyrus is released from jail, but remains charged, and when Rebecca Foster fails to attend the State Supreme Court’s hearing on the rape case, North is acquitted.

During a routine check-in on May Dawin, Martha notices a piece of lace in Sam’s pocket, and makes a connection to a piece of lace that was found with Burgess’s body, a “trophy” he had kept from the Foster rape. Around the same time, Sally unexpectedly gives birth to a baby, and reveals that Jonathan is the father. Martha confronts Jonathan about his new child and uses the opportunity to question him about the day that Sam was rescued from the ice. Jonathan admits that Sam used a bloody rope to haul himself to safety.

Rebecca gives birth, but rejects her baby, telling Martha to throw it in the river. Martha instead brings the baby to Sarah, who is still breastfeeding. Sarah’s sweetheart from the militia has returned to marry her and buy the general store. Martha returns home satisfied, but is met there by North, who intends to rape her as retribution for her investigation into his crimes. In self-defense, Martha chops off North’s penis with one of Ephraim’s woodworking blades.

Martha identifies Sam as Burgess’s murderer and asks him about his motivations. Sam reveals that Burgess raped May, and he killed him as revenge with Jonathan’s help. Martha understands his actions and promises not to tell anyone. With his involvement in the Burgess murder unknown, Jonathan is able to marry Sally and provide for his new family.

Each of the novel’s six parts concludes with a flashback that comprises a secondary plot. In 1754, Martha was raped in her hometown by a man named Billy Crane. A group of local men (including Ephraim and North) took it upon themselves to hang him. Ephraim marries Martha quickly thereafter, in part to save her from potential ruin, and the couple falls deeply in love. Martha begins an apprenticeship with the local midwife some years later and becomes a midwife herself. In the summer of 1769, a diphtheria epidemic kills three of Martha and Ephraim’s daughters, and Ephraim longs to live elsewhere, while Martha wants to stay where her children are buried. Finally, in 1778, they compromise by moving to Hallowell and bringing the girls’ tombstones with them.