Diamonds aren’t always a girl’s best friend.
Pregnant out of wedlock, sixteen-year-old Annie Moore is sent to live at a convent for fallen women. When the nuns take her baby, Annie escapes, determined to find a way to be reunited with her daughter. But few rights or opportunities are available to a woman in the 1860s, and after failing to find a respectable job, Annie resorts to prostitution in order to survive.
As a highly sought-after demi-mondaine, Annie—now Bessie—garners many expensive gifts from her admirers, and eventually meets and marries the son of a wealthy jeweler. With her marriage, she believes her dream of returning to proper society has finally come true. She’s proven wrong when she suffers the ultimate betrayal at the hands of the man she thought would be her salvation. But Bessie doesn’t let her story end there.
Inspired by a true story and set amid the burgeoning women’s rights movement, The Lives of Diamond Bessie is a haunting tale of betrayal and redemption that explores whether seeking revenge is worth the price you might pay.
“Drawing on a true story, Hadlock uses authentic period detail and well-drawn characters to pull readers into Annie/Bessie’s precarious journey toward redemption, which comes to an unexpected ending. This affecting tale of a 19th-century American woman struggling to prove her worth other than as a marriage prospect leaves a lasting impression.”
—Publishers Weekly
Industry Reviews
2022 Global Book Awards Gold Medal in Women's Fiction
2022 Global Book Awards Silver Medal in Mystery (Historical Fiction)
2022 PenCraft Book Awards First Place Winner in Fiction (Supernatural)
2022 NYC Big Book Awards Distinguished Favorite in Paranormal Mystery/Thriller
2022 American Fiction Awards Winner in Cross Genre Fiction
2022 American Fiction Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction, Mystery/Suspense: Historical, and Women's Fiction
2022 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Crime Fiction
2022 Firebird Book Awards Second Place Winner in Cross Genre
2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Paranormal and Finalist in Suspense
2022 IPPY Awards Bronze Winner in Historical Fiction
"[A] genre-bending debut novel. . . . There's an impressive deliberateness in the way that Hadlock present her themes. . . The novel also skillfully uses foreshadowing to create a suspenseful atmosphere without giving the game away. . . . An often engaging and inventive character study."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Drawing on a true story, Hadlock uses authentic period detail and well-drawn characters to pull readers into Annie/Bessie's precarious journey toward redemption, which comes to an unexpected ending. This affecting tale of a 19th-century American woman struggling to prove her worth other than as a marriage prospect leaves a lasting impression."
-Publishers Weekly
"Hadlock's unvarnished, sympathetic portrayal makes Bessie's hardscrabble existence all the more heart-wrenching and transforms Bessie into a feminist heroine. The Lives of Diamond Bessie is a picaresque, a courtroom drama, and a ghost story rolled into one, celebrating the heart and soul of a woman done wrong."
- Mark Beauregard, author of The Whale: A Love Story
"Fast-paced, richly observed, and populated with vibrant characters, The Lives of Diamond Bessie is unputdownable."
-Adrienne Brodeur, author of the bestseller Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
