The Des Moines Register, April 10, 2005 The "America's Heartland" of the subtitle is Iowa's rural Warren County, hear Indianola, 105 years ago. As prosperous farmer John Hossack slept, somebody killed him with an ax. His wife, Margaret, mother of nine children with John, said she was sleeping inches from him, but never heard or saw the attacker. Finding that account difficult to believe, law enforcement charged her with murder. An Indianola jury convicted her, an appellate court overturned the conviction because of procedural errors during the trial, a second jury (this time in Winterset, on a change of venue) could not reach a verdict. Margaret Hossack lived another decade as a widow, in freedom until her death in 1916. End of story? Not at all. Authors Patricia L. Bryan, a law professor, and Thomas Wolf, a professional writer, imbue their superb book about John Hossack's murder with context galore. Midnight Assassin is a real-life murder mystery, to be sure. But it is also, among other things, a study of rural Iowa at the beginning of the 20 th century; a commentary on the evolving role of women; a mini-biography of Susan Glaspell, a 20-something fledging reporter for a Des Moines newspaper who covered the case before achieving fame as an author/feminist; and an exploration about the difficulties of learning the truth in the context of the criminal justice system. Bryan and Wolf used to live in Iowa City before relocating to Chapel Hill, N.C. Their Midwest sensibilities are demonstrated over and over in this pitch-perfect chronicle. The delve into the characters of Margaret Hossack, John Hossack, the nine children (at least one of whom might have wielded the ax), the prosecutor, the defense lawyer, neighbors of the Hossack farm who might have known more than they told, and Glaspell. This is mini-biography at its best; this is Iowa history at its best. Potential readers of Midnight Assassin will want to know: Do Bryan and Wolf think Margaret Hossack killed her husband? It is impossible to say based on the text alone. The authors present the evidence in all its complexity. They are smart enough to understand that during a law enforcement investigation and during a trial, the narratives spun by the various parties are purposeful. No sheriff, no prosecutor, no defense lawyer presents all the facts and speculations known to them. Rather, they present an expurgated version meant to achieve a desired outcome. After presenting the various scenarios, Bryan and Wolf end the book with Margaret Hossack's obituary from the Indianola Herald, an obituary that never mentions her husband's murder or her two murder trials. They note that Margaret chose to be buried next to her husband of 32 years, the man who might--or might not--have abused her regularly. 'A simple stone engraved with their names," Bryan and Wolf note, "marks the site."
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