The Inquest
Jeffrey D. Marshall
Vermont, June 2006, $24.95
ISBN: 1584655712

In 1830 in Burlington, Vermont, Experience "Speedy" Goodrich dies following an abortion. As County Prosecutor Charles Adams stated five years later, the outrage and uproar by the public and the nebulousness of the law made it impossible to bring a conviction in the case in spite of the Inquest Jury's strong belief to the contrary. In fact the evidence proved contradictory and confusing. However, three critical accounts the tragic incident were scribed leaving it to posterity to decide truth in the same way that Mr. Adams did by seeking common agreement from the accounts.

The first account is by University of Vermont medical student Charles Daggett, who may have performed the abortion, but clearly was involved in procuring willing female participants for medical experiments. Another university student Stephen Decatur Parker served as the court recorder who provides insight into the proceedings and mindset of the inquest jury, witnesses, and others associated with the investigation. Finally, there is Speedy's sister Nancy Goodrich Proctor, who provides insight into her sibling. You the reader must draw your own conclusions as to whether murder occurred and if yes by whom.

Using a genuine nineteenth century tragedy with real people (except for Parker), Jeffrey D. Marshal provides a well-rounded provocative historical fiction tale that parallels much of the contemporary abortion controversy. Readers are hooked from the opening brief statement by Adams and never let's go as each of the three other protagonists provides their account of the deadly event. Abortion in a religious, individual freedom, and most important economic contexts provide the audience with insight to what people faced in 1830 and ironically what Speedy would confront somewhat today especially if abortion becomes legal only for the rich to go to Europe and the middle class to Canada and the Caribbean.

Harriet Klausner