James Thane's Reviews > Bury Me Deep

In Bury Me Deep, Megan Abbott reimagines the true story of Winnie Judd, the infamous 1931 "Trunk Murderess" of Phoenix, Arizona. Judd was accused of murdering two of her female friends in a dispute over the affections of a local business man and philanderer who had befriended all three women. Judd then allegedly transported the bodies by train from Phoenix to Los Angeles. She was originally convicted for committing one of the murders and sentenced to death, but the death sentence was vacated after Judd was determined to be mentally insane, and she was committed to a state mental hospital. She escaped several times from the hospital and was ultimately paroled.

In Abbott's fictional account, an attractive young woman named Marion Seeley, the naive daughter of a minister from Michigan, has married a doctor several years her senior. The doctor turns out to be a drug addict and loses his license to practice. He is forced to take a job working for a mining company in Mexico, where having a license is not critical to his employment. While there, he will attempt to kick his drug habit and, in the meantime, he leaves Marion alone in a desert community that is never identified but which we assume to be the Phoenix of 1931.

Marion gets a job at a medical clinic and is befriended by two party girls, one of whom is a nurse at the clinic where Marion works. Marion soon falls under the influence of the women who supplement their income by entertaining local businessmen. The attractive young Marion is seduced by a local civic leader, a philanderer named Joe Lanigan, and her life rapidly disintegrates. Marion ultimately gets into a terrible fight about Joe with her two friends, Louise and Ginny. A tragic accident is compounded by a vicious murder, and Marion finds herself in a hopeless predicament from which there would appear to be no recovery.

This is not a crime novel in the usual sense, although there are plenty of crimes committed during the course of the story. The characters, Marion in particular, are extremely well-drawn, and the reader watches in horror as her innocence is taken and her life is destroyed. It takes a while for the story to gather momentum, but once it does, it moves like a runaway train. The reader understands that the train is about to go over a very high cliff, but you can't look away from the carnage that will result. This is, ultimately, a gripping story set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, in a world where attractive young women are often simply the playthings of wealthy and powerful men--a very good read.