The Massey Murder

This book tells the fascinating narrative re-telling of a crime that captured the imagination of Canadians at the beginning of the 20th century, but it does so much more than that. The author left me with a better understanding of the changes for women at the time, for the impact WW1 had on Canada, for British Colonial Society, for the history of Toronto, and much more. I'm grateful I stumbled over this book, it is one of the best reads in months.

The author is extremely biased and turns the entire story into a good-guys-vs-bad-guys tale where Toronto is painted as a backwards torturous place to live and supposedly suffers from "severe moral panic" as Gray would describe it. I was very disappointed because the true story itself that she was recounting was really interesting and I liked learning about the history at that time, but her perspective is so strong it overshadowed most of the benefits of reading it.