"An evocative, deeply-researched account of an infamous murder that takes the reader into the tangled gender politics of Gilded-Age America. Gamber has an eye for detail and a flair for narrative that makes this book both a gripping read and a perceptive analysis of late nineteenth-century social mores."
"A fascinating, deeply researched, and analytically complex book, The Notorious Mrs. Clem is both well conceived and well written."
"At its best, a great history book is a great mystery story—and The Notorious Mrs. Clem is both. Double Murder! Mutilated corpses! Ponzi schemes! Snake oil! Women’s rights! Covering the four murder trials of an inscrutable Indianapolis housewife whose only crime may have been that she was a shrewd and independent business woman, master historian Wendy Gamber lets the story speak for itself while deftly interweaving insights about the margins of American business, marriage, and womanhood during the Gilded Age. So tight and fast-paced that it can be read in a pleasant afternoon, The Notorious Mrs. Clem will leave you pondering the greatest mystery of them all: that history is ultimately the record of what we just don’t know."
"The murder of a business partner doesn’t sound very sexy. But Gamber raises a provocative issue when she studies the era’s disapproving attitude toward any woman who dared to benefit from the commercial opportunities of a postwar world—especially if that commerce happened to be illegal."
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