Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell

In this meticulously researched book, freelance writer and journalist Hatfield dusts off the archives of a murder case that captured America's attention 70 years ago and breaths new life into it. Late one night in 1935, in Wise County, Va., a precocious young teacher named Edith Maxwell returned home to her abusive father, Trigg. Shortly afterwards, a neighbor overheard what sounded like a fight and went over to the Maxwell residence to check out the situation. He found Trigg lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. The next day, Edith and her mother were indicted for Trigg's murder, setting off a media frenzy reminiscent of some of the human interest stories of today-Jean Benet Ramsey, Terry Schiavo, etc. Like those stories, the Maxwell murder case quickly became fodder for both yellow journalism and tabloid sensationalism. A native of Virgina, and a one-time resident of Wise County herself, Hatfield details the Maxwell family's experiences in the years before Trigg's death, the progress of the court case (which eventually turned on a Virginia law that prohibited women from serving on juries) and Edith's rise to celebrity. Though the book's narrative is not particularly gripping, Hatfield does succeed at showing how a simple murder case in ""'hard-core' Appalachia"" reflected the larger social issues of the time. ""Maxwell's is an American story,"" she argues, ""one in which notions of women's equality and power, of the vast freedoms and terrible responsibilities given to the mass media as well as the integrity of our legal system, were severely put to the test.""