See What I Have Done

See What I Have Done is a mystery, thriller novel by Sarah Schmidt. It is her debut book and has already won the Mud Literary Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The book takes place in historical America in 1892, where families lived on large plantations together in small towns. In the town of Fall River, Massachusetts the Borden family comprising of a mother, father, and two daughters, live along with an Irish maid in a large mansion. The family is well known and clearly very wealthy, but that doesn’t keep the Borden daughters from unhappiness. Emma is the older of the two girls. She is mature and interested in things like art, literature, and love. She does not care too much for her younger sister Lizzie, who is very immature, even in her adult years, is overly, to a scary extent, religious, and throws tantrums.

However, the two daughters are soon brought closer together when a mysterious murder befalls their family. Both Mr. and Mrs. Borden are killed by an ax murder randomly while in their home one morning. The story is then told from the different points of view of Lizzie, Emma, and their maid. Each has a different recollection of the day of the murder, and each will lead to the culprit.

See What I Have Done is an excellent reimagination of one of the most infamous murder mysteries in American history. Schmidt gives us a thrilling tale of the intimacy of the murder, and the complexity of the story behind it. Not often could one read a mystery book that they already know the ending of if they know the historical story, and still be so enthralled with the book. Yet, Schmidt keeps her audience intrigued the entire time with her reconceptualized version of this thrilling story.