Read online Mardi Link - Isadore's Secret : Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town in DOC, EPUB, MOBI
9780472070794 English 0472070797 "InIsadore's Secret,Mardi Link shines a journalist's lamp on this dark, quiet corner of Michigan's history, assuring that the tragic story of Sister Janina is not forgotten. Link's telling is fascinating and thorough, making a story you will not soon forget." ---Steve Lehto, author ofDeath's DoorA gripping account of the mysterious 1907 disappearance of a young nun in a northern Michigan town and the national controversy that followed when she turned up dead and buried in the basement of her own convent.Swinging planks of lantern light shine through the musty air and onto the dirt floor of the church basement. The oddly glowing rectangles syncopate over the damp ground and illuminate even the darkest, stooped-down corners of the space beyond. The only sound is the ragged breathing of two men, a young parish priest and a much older laborer. Aboveground these men belong completely to this place, in both body and soul. A glimpse of their faces anywhere in the sanctuary, the rectory, the school, the barn, or the gardens would be a welcome sight. But here below, these men of Isadore are interlopers. Only trespassers would sneak silently into the church's sloped underbelly without witness to carry out such a sinful and secret errand as this one. Despite their tools, and their lantern, and their resolve, neither is equipped for the task at hand or for what is to come.Mardi Link, a former crime reporter, was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction in 2007. Her first book,When Evil Came to Good Hart, also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List.This true story was the basis for the Broadway playThe Runner Stumblesand the film of the same name.Front cover: Photograph of cemetery John L. Russell, Great Lakes Images; image of face iStockphoto.com/duncan1890., On August 23, 1907, Sister Janina waved good-bye to her priest, who was headed out for an afternoon of fishing, and retired to her convent cell to take a nap. She was never seen again. The young Felician nun lived in Isadore, Michigan, a tiny town in the state's sparsely populated Leelenau Peninsula. But that didn't stop her case from making national waves.More than 400 people from the area searched for her, but for more than a decade her disappearance remained a mystery. Her fellow nuns listed her as "lost" in their book of records, and so she remained until an ambitious priest launched a campaign to build a new church at Isadore. That's when her skeleton was found buried in the dirt-floored basement of the old church, causing an uproar that scandalized the small farming town.Mardi Link's previous true-crime novel,When Evil Came to Good Hart,focused on the 1968 murder of a wealthy Detroit area family in their northern Michigan cabin. It was an instant success, topping area best-seller lists and generating rave reviews nationwide. This time Link turns her journalistic and detective skills to a shocking story that remained buried for years.Isadore's Secrethas all the ingredients of a terrific whodunit: a young woman murdered, the Catholic confessional, the Michigan Supreme Court, bishops, doctors, priests, detectives, lumbermen, a spy, and one diminutive Polish housekeeper. Many details of the case have been kept secret even into the present day, more than a century later . . . until now. The book gives readers a historic and compelling yarn of sin, murder, and confession, and its sometimes macabre and far-fetched nature makes it all the more shocking that it is a true story, a work of nonfiction.Mardi Link is a freelance journalist and a founder of Michigan Writers, a nonprofit support group for working writers. She is cofounder and former executive editor ofForeWord Magazine.In 2007, she was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Annie Dillard Creative Nonfiction Award. This is her second book; her first,When Evil Came to Good Hart,also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
9780472070794 English 0472070797 "InIsadore's Secret,Mardi Link shines a journalist's lamp on this dark, quiet corner of Michigan's history, assuring that the tragic story of Sister Janina is not forgotten. Link's telling is fascinating and thorough, making a story you will not soon forget." ---Steve Lehto, author ofDeath's DoorA gripping account of the mysterious 1907 disappearance of a young nun in a northern Michigan town and the national controversy that followed when she turned up dead and buried in the basement of her own convent.Swinging planks of lantern light shine through the musty air and onto the dirt floor of the church basement. The oddly glowing rectangles syncopate over the damp ground and illuminate even the darkest, stooped-down corners of the space beyond. The only sound is the ragged breathing of two men, a young parish priest and a much older laborer. Aboveground these men belong completely to this place, in both body and soul. A glimpse of their faces anywhere in the sanctuary, the rectory, the school, the barn, or the gardens would be a welcome sight. But here below, these men of Isadore are interlopers. Only trespassers would sneak silently into the church's sloped underbelly without witness to carry out such a sinful and secret errand as this one. Despite their tools, and their lantern, and their resolve, neither is equipped for the task at hand or for what is to come.Mardi Link, a former crime reporter, was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction in 2007. Her first book,When Evil Came to Good Hart, also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List.This true story was the basis for the Broadway playThe Runner Stumblesand the film of the same name.Front cover: Photograph of cemetery John L. Russell, Great Lakes Images; image of face iStockphoto.com/duncan1890., On August 23, 1907, Sister Janina waved good-bye to her priest, who was headed out for an afternoon of fishing, and retired to her convent cell to take a nap. She was never seen again. The young Felician nun lived in Isadore, Michigan, a tiny town in the state's sparsely populated Leelenau Peninsula. But that didn't stop her case from making national waves.More than 400 people from the area searched for her, but for more than a decade her disappearance remained a mystery. Her fellow nuns listed her as "lost" in their book of records, and so she remained until an ambitious priest launched a campaign to build a new church at Isadore. That's when her skeleton was found buried in the dirt-floored basement of the old church, causing an uproar that scandalized the small farming town.Mardi Link's previous true-crime novel,When Evil Came to Good Hart,focused on the 1968 murder of a wealthy Detroit area family in their northern Michigan cabin. It was an instant success, topping area best-seller lists and generating rave reviews nationwide. This time Link turns her journalistic and detective skills to a shocking story that remained buried for years.Isadore's Secrethas all the ingredients of a terrific whodunit: a young woman murdered, the Catholic confessional, the Michigan Supreme Court, bishops, doctors, priests, detectives, lumbermen, a spy, and one diminutive Polish housekeeper. Many details of the case have been kept secret even into the present day, more than a century later . . . until now. The book gives readers a historic and compelling yarn of sin, murder, and confession, and its sometimes macabre and far-fetched nature makes it all the more shocking that it is a true story, a work of nonfiction.Mardi Link is a freelance journalist and a founder of Michigan Writers, a nonprofit support group for working writers. She is cofounder and former executive editor ofForeWord Magazine.In 2007, she was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Annie Dillard Creative Nonfiction Award. This is her second book; her first,When Evil Came to Good Hart,also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List.