Line #14 Literature/TheBordenDispatches


1	[[quoteright:317:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20821288_3637.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:317:Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave the Deep Ones forty whacks....]]
3
4	'''''The Borden Dispatches''''' are a series of horror novels by Creator/CheriePriest, blending historical fact and Lovecraftian fiction.
5
6	'''March, 1893:''' Phillip Zollicoffer, professor of marine biology at Miskatonic University, receives an unusual specimen of sea jelly from the renowned but reclusive Dr. E.A. Jackson. Zollicoffer becomes obsessed with the specimen, his sanity quickly eroding until he is driven to an unspeakable act of bloody murder....
7
8	'''April, 1894:''' Lizzie Andrew Borden -- yes, ''that'' UsefulNotes/LizzieBorden -- and her older sister Emma have purchased a rambling house near the sea called Maplecroft in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts. The sisters are shunned by the townsfolk, despite Lizzie's acquittal in the axe murders of their father and stepmother. As it turns out, Lizzie -- or Lizbeth, as she prefers -- ''did'' take an axe to Andrew Jackson Borden and Abigail Borden, but that's only half the story. A week before the murders, a sickness swept through the Borden household, slowly transforming Lizbeth's parents into flabby, waterlogged ''things'' without a trace of their former humanity.
9
10	Now the things from the sea are drawn to Maplecroft, and to the strange green bits of sea-glass that Lizbeth keeps locked in an iron box under the basement floorboards. Emma, wheelchair-bound and suffering from consumption, conducts cutting-edge scientific research in the field of marine biology under the name [[MustacheDePlume E.A. Jackson]]. Lizbeth's only happiness is found in infrequent visits from her actress lover, Nance O'Neil. Every night, Lizbeth patrols the grounds of the estate, hunting the fish-creatures that crawl up from the depths. Public opinion may be against her, but her axe is the only thing that seems to deal with the creatures permanently, and she may be the only thing standing between Fall River and the creeping madness from the deep....
11
12	'''Novels in the series include:'''
13	* ''Maplecroft'' (published September 2014)
14	* ''Chapelwood'' (published September 2015)
15
16	----
17	!!This book series provides examples of the following tropes:
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19	%%* ActionGirl: Lizbeth, of course.
20	%%* AgentMulder: Inspector Wolf.
21	* AmazonianBeauty: What Nance thinks of Lizbeth; she isn't tall, but she is very muscular as a result of hunting Deep Ones on a regular basis.
22	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Priest takes some liberties with historical events to better fit them into the narrative. Lizzie Borden and Nance O'Neil did not meet until 1904, for example, and the novel takes place in 1894.
23	%%* AxCrazy. Zollicoffer.
24	* BittersweetEnding: ''Maplecroft'' comes about a hair's breadth away from pulling a full-on DownerEnding. [[spoiler:Lizbeth is stuck in a HeroicBSOD as a result of her failure to save Nance. Nance is fully aquatic and answers the call of the sea, presumably never to return. Dr. Seabury has gone insane. Emma leaves Maplecroft, mutual bitterness and resentment leaving her estranged from her sister, and her consumption has never been worse. And the elder god implied to be behind it all is still somewhere out there in the ocean, biding its time. All of this makes for a clear SequelHook, however, and we may see fortunes turn yet, as Zollicoffer's killing spree has been ended and Inspector Wolf might prove a future ally.]]
25	* BrokenBird: Lizbeth.
26	* ColdIron: The only thing the creatures from the sea are vulnerable to. Lizbeth's axe has an iron head, and she pounds iron nails into every threshold in the house.
27	* TheCorruption: Claims Lizzie and Emma's stepmother and father before the events of ''Maplecroft'', and many people during, [[spoiler:including Nance]].
28	* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Nance tries to throw herself into the cooker to save Lizbeth, but it doesn't work.]]
29	%%* EldritchAbomination: See GreaterScopeVillain.
30	* FishPeople: Basically the same type as the Deep Ones from ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', though in this case they're humans mutated by TheCorruption rather than the result of interbreeding with sea monsters.
31	* GreaterScopeVillain: Implied. [[spoiler:Apparently, some eldritch creature resides off the coast of Massachusetts in the Atlantic and is able to corrupt humans who live near the shore or come into contact with one of its artifacts--the sea-glass, like the one Lizbeth's stepmother wore as a necklace. It is also what creates and directs the Deep Ones, and the "jelly" that the Bordens found and sent to Dr. Zollicoffer seems to be either its servant or a part of its physical body. Zollicoffer himself comes to believe that it is female and to call it "the Mother".]]
32	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Several, including Lizbeth, Emma and Nance.
33	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Lizzie Borden may or may not have murdered her parents in real life, but it's a near certainty that she did ''not'' hunt Lovecraftian horrors from the deep with an axe.
34	* HollywoodAtheist: Downplayed in the case of Owen Seabury. He doesn't angst or proselytize, but it's clear that his war years and his career as a doctor have left him without faith in a higher power.
35	%%* TheIngenue: Nance O'Neil.
36	%%* LipstickLesbian: Lizbeth and Nance.
37	* LovecraftCountry: Fall River is smack in the middle of it, with Miskatonic University and Providence both within driving distance.
38	* LovecraftLite: Zig-zagged, but ultimately more Lovecraft than Lite by the end of ''Maplecroft''. See BittersweetEnding.
39	* LoveTriangle: Lizbeth finds herself caught between her romantic relationship with Nance and having to care for her sick sister. As the problem escalates, [[spoiler:she gradually comes to value the former over the latter... and, in a bitter irony, loses Nance to the GreaterScopeVillain, while estranging herself from Emma, as well]].
40	* MustacheDePlume: Emma uses one in order to publish her papers and have her research taken seriously by men who would not, if they knew her true identity.
41	* OccultDetective: Inspector Wolf seems to be one. The ending implies that he [[spoiler:works for an entire organization dedicated to investigating unusual cases.]]
42	* NobleBigot: Dr. Owen Seabury is a steadfast ally of the Bordens, but he's casually sexist and disapproves of Lizbeth and Nance's relationship. [[ValuesDissonance To be expected, given the setting and time period.]]
43	* SanitySlippage: Dr. Zolicoffer's slips quickly as a result of his contact with the specimen. [[spoiler:Dr. Seabury's goes more slowly as the result of simple obsession with the problems in Fall River.]]
44	* SequelHook: Many are set up in ''Maplecroft's'' final chapter.
45	* ShoutOut: Lovecraft gets several, naturally.
46	* ShownTheirWork: Priest clearly did some research into Lizzie Borden's life and the circumstances surrounding the murders, working lesser-known events such as the violent illness that overtook the Bordens in the week preceding their deaths and Lizzie's close friendship (which was the subject of much gossip) with Nance O'Neil into the narrative.
47	* TheSpook: Inspector Wolf. No one knows ''anything'' about him, other than that he's "from Boston." At least he's an apparently benevolent spook.
48	%%* StatuesqueStunner: Nance.
49	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler: Though the sickness may have already taken root in Fall River, Emma probably made things ''much'' worse by sending the sea jelly specimen to Dr. Zollicoffer.]]
50	* WeaksauceWeakness: It turns out the fish-men are vulnerable to [[spoiler:tetanus]].

Context Literature / TheBordenDispatches