Liberty Street

This is what great historical fiction looks like. Liberty Street is a story that will educate you about the past, make you emotional and confront horrific truths as it pulls you into the lives of characters who will remain with you long after the last page is turned.

The story is told in two timelines, one in rural Huron County in the 1990's where Detective Rachel MacKenzie is investigating a body found in an unmarked grave and the other in 1960's Toronto where publishing assistant Emily Radcliffe goes undercover (a la Nelly Bly) in Mercer Women's Prison after learning about the Female Refuges Act. This legislation permitted women to be imprisoned and sent to live in squalid conditions where they endured abuse, malnourishment and more, for simply being deemed 'incorrigible' by their families.

".. it doesn't take much for a woman to be called insane, or hysterical. And all it takes is the wrong doctor, one who thinks sending her away will solve the problem."

"These women were so used to being ignored and forgotten when they weren't being punished and shamed. They'd internalized it to the point where the idea of anyone in power caring about their quality of life, or whether they lived or died at all, was not only foreign, but ludicrous."

There's a lot of Canadiana in this book including the lakeside setting of Bayfield, Ontario, recognizable Toronto locations, including the Liberty Village neighbourhood where the prison once was situated, and the iconic Chatelaine magazine where Emily worked. Chatelaine was always around my house growing up and I have a greater respect for this popular women's magazine after learning how it sneaked feminist text into its articles, right under the noses of husbands who preferred their wives to not get any wild ideas.

But this story is far from a glowing review of Canada's past, and I applaud the author for continuing to advocate for women's rights by highlighting systemic injustices against women and shining a bright light on a dark part of Canadian history that no one is talking about.

"Because it's always a lack of options that hangs women, in the end."

This is a story you need to read. Deeply emotional, maddening, and eye-opening, this is a well-researched story about resilience that showcases inspiring women (a couple of whom are pulled right from history) who battled against the status quo as they advocated for basic human rights for women. It will teach and entertain you in equal measure, leave you with much food for thought and respect for the women who fought (and continue to fight) for women's rights. 

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Heather Marshall

Genre: Historical Fiction, Canadian

Type and Source: Trade paperback, personal copy

Publisher: DoubleDay Canada

First Published: February 24, 2026

Read: March 18-24, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: From #1 bestselling Canadian author Heather Marshall (Looking for Jane) comes a riveting, page-turning and intertwining story of two women whose destinies are linked over decades.

Toronto, 1961: Emily Radcliffe works as an editorial assistant at Chatelaine magazine, surrounded by a group of the best women journalists in the country, whose articles tackle the controversial topics no other women’s publication dares to touch. When a bombshell letter lands on Emily’s desk from an inmate at the notorious Mercer Women’s Prison, Emily sees a scoop that could launch her career as a real, hard-boiled journalist like the colleagues she admires. After convincing her boss to let her cover the story, Emily goes undercover in the prison to learn whether the shocking claims in the inmate’s letter are true. But what she doesn’t know is that getting into the prison will turn out to be the easy part; it’s getting back out that will be difficult. 

Huron County, 1996: Rachel Jamieson spends her days working at a small-town cemetery, alone amid the peace and quiet. As an anxious and introverted person, the solitude of the job suits her just fine. But when one of her staff stumbles across an unmarked grave containing the remains of a woman in an old prison uniform, Rachel’s work takes a sinister turn. While she assists the police in uncovering the woman’s identity and how she came to be buried in a secret unmarked grave, trauma from Rachel’s past threatens to surface from where she’s kept it carefully hidden.

Inspired by the real-life Toronto women’s prison that was the first of its kind in Canada, as well as true figures and events, Liberty Street vividly brings to life the historic treatment of mentally ill and incarcerated women while shining a light on the dark realities of various ‘prisons’ that hold women captive.