The Maid and The Socialite by Lynda Drews
I love local history. Even the history of cities that I’ve never been to, like Green Bay, Wisconsin, is incredibly interesting, especially when the information being shared is from a perspective that’s never been told before. This type of bottom-up history (Google it!) is evident in The Maid and The Socialite. In the book, Lynda Drews brings to life the literal trials that two local women, Mary (the maid) and Mollie (the socialite) in the early 1900s.
Their lives were upended by hailed physician Dr. John R. Minihan, who has a number of local icons named after him, including an office building and a stadium at St. Norbert College. He was something of a local hero, and even served as the mayor of Green Bay. However, he had a secret habit of physically abusing women and then ruining their lives afterwards by telling everyone that they had syphilis. This is where the accused, Mary and Mollie, enter the history books.
My Thoughts on the The Maid and The Socialite
Lynda Drews is primarily a fiction writer, and this shows through her non fiction work in a very good way. Although the book is well-researched and historically accurate, Drews managed to describe each scene and each person in plenty of detail, making the reader feel as though they’re in the proverbial room. This makes The Maid and the Socialite a true crime book to get lost in, and by the end, you’ll wish there were more to the story.
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