The Hanging of Betsey Reed
By Rick Kelsheimer

A book review by Tom Frew

In mid January the author dropped by the SCHS and presented us with a copy of his book and our esteemed President asked me to read and comment on it, so here is my review.
First of all this is a historically accurate book, and chronicles the events leading up to the trial and hanging of Elizabeth Reed in Lawrenceville, Ill on the 23rd of May, 1845, for the poisoning of her husband. She was the only woman publicly hanged in Ill. And all the events took place within just a few miles of where we now live.
The author takes literary license to make the story real! As with other historical novels before him he puts the reader into the life and times of the characters. Mr. Kelsheimer has invented several of the people, who populate his book, but only one is of any consequence and that is the narrator of the story. I found the character of Nathan Crockett so real, that I wanted to look him up and see what became of him. All of the locations are like old friends to most of us, from Merom and Hutsonville to Palestine where most of the story takes place. You feel like you are walking along the same roads with these people of the 1840s, stumbling over the same rocks. You can see in your mind the events, and as I did, you must make up your own mind as to the guilt or innocence of Betsey Reed. All in all I truly enjoyed this book and hope to reed Rick’s next book soon