1961: Emily Radcliffe works as an editorial assistant at Chatelaine magazine, surrounded by the best female reporters in the country, whose articles tackle the controversial topics no other women's publication dares to touch. When a bombshell letter from an inmate at the notorious Mercer Women's Prison lands on Emily's desk, she sees the scoop of a lifetime—one that could launch her career as a journalist. But after going undercover to investigate the inmate's shocking claims, Emily discovers that getting into the prison is the easy part; the real challenge will be getting back out . . .
1996: Unidentified female remains are discovered in an unmarked grave in a small-town Ontario cemetery, and Detective Rachel Mackenzie is tasked with unraveling the mystery. But when the investigation leads her to the now-shuttered Mercer Women's Prison, the family trauma she's kept buried for years threatens to surface.
Liberty Street is a riveting novel about one journalist's harrowing journey into an infamous real-life 1960s women's prison—and the detective who uncovers her story decades later. With its startling prose and vivid characters, Marshall's latest shines a light on the institutional horror and abuse that was the fate of women who were deemed incorrigible under the Female Refugees Act.
Inspired by true events, Liberty Street is at once poignant and dazzling—an unforgettable, intertwining story about resilience, mental health, and the power of female connection.
HEATHER MARSHALL is the #1 bestselling author of Looking for Jane and The Secret History of Audrey James. She worked in politics and communications before turning her attention to her true passion: storytelling.
Marshall lives near Toronto with her family and their giant golden retriever.
Q & A with Heather Marshall*
GWR: How long did it take you to write Liberty Street, and how many drafts were there before publication?
HM: The idea solidified for me in the summer of 2021, before my debut Looking for Jane had even been published, and when I was just beginning work on my second novel The Secret History of Audrey James. I made some notes at that point, but because I was working on my second book, Liberty Street was put on the back burner for a while, but I still did bits of research here and there, and I knew I was excited to write it eventually!
As for drafts, my writing process is a bit more fluid than some other authors, so I don’t often do a lot of drafts; I sort of do the first one with a lot of intention, and then edit from there. Once I was freed up to really start writing after I finished The Secret History of Audrey James, I wrote the first draft of Liberty Street in about a year.
GWR: What was the genesis of the novel?
HM: This one, as many of my ideas do, came from falling down an internet rabbit hole. I was on maternity leave with my first child, who loved to nap in my arms. So I spent a lot of time reading, and doing research with my thumbs on my phone. I don’t even recall exactly how, but I came across a reference to the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women that was in Toronto’s Liberty Village until the late 60s, and it rang a bell. I realized I knew about it from a memoir I’d read in university, written by a woman who was incarcerated there. It felt like another piece of Canada’s history, and women’s history, that the average reader might not know about, and I love to shine a light on those little-known bits of our shared past. So I decided to run with it.
GWR: Do you let your characters tell you who they are, or do you decide their characteristics?
HM: I always love this question, because I get to share a personal hubris. When I was taking weekend and evening writing workshops and sort of ‘studying’ the art of writing, I saw an author talking about how the characters just take over and make their own decisions, and at the time, I thought ‘what silly nonsense is that? You’re the author! You make the decisions!’. And then it happened to me. Sometimes you think you’ve got one of your characters figured out, and then they come tap you on the shoulder and tell you you’re doing it wrong, and then all of a sudden they’re leading the way on their own adventure, It’s definitely surprising, but also fun, when that happens. But I finally understood what that author had been saying. Sometimes I feel more like a conduit than a creator when the characters start to take over the writing process.
GWR: Liberty Street takes a deep dive into other issues—mental health, autonomy, institutional abuse, female solidarity—why was it important to include these elements int the story?
HM: Well, a big part of the reason was historical accuracy. The women at this institution were horribly abused and exploited, and stripped of their autonomy by both the patriarchy and some truly mind-boggling laws that allowed for it to happen. And I think whenever women are under attack, throughout history we’ve always seen them come together to fight back. That’s one of the things that gives me hope for the future, despite the terrible times we’re living in, and it’s one of the best reasons to be aware of—and respect—history. It can teach us a lot about what we’re capable of, for better or worse.
Female solidarity is a big theme in all my novels because it’s just so important and inspiring, and if you pay attention, you’ll see it everywhere.
In terms of mental health, I knew that was a theme I wanted to explore in both timelines in this novel, because it’s so relatable, for a start, and also because the history of how women have been treated in relation to their mental health is so disturbing. I really wanted to try to spark some conversations about that, specifically postpartum mental health.
GWR: Tell me about the research you did?
HM: The research process for this book was really fun and interesting, though at times very distressing. I jumped through a lot of hoops to try to access as many of the records from the Andrew Mercer Reformatory as I could, but many are sealed and protected by privacy laws. I got my hands on redacted copies that still provided general information without any inmates’ names, and I was able to see records that were a bit older and no longer sealed. I also turned to memoirs, coroner’s reports, blueprints of the prison from the city’s archives, and publicly available articles from the Toronto Star.
GWR: Can you talk about dual-timeline narrative—how did this come about?
HM: Honestly, I’m a sucker for a dual-timeline narrative, plain and simple. In my teens and early adulthood when I started reading longer and more complex novels, I found the dual timeline so enjoyable as a reader, and as a writer—particularly of historical fiction—I find it allows for the most coverage of the story, and lets me show an evolution of the themes over time: how far we’ve come in some ways, and how far we still have to go. Writing more than one point of view also lets me sort of write two novels in one, which is creatively satisfying, and I also just think there’s always more than one side to any story, so it’s nice to be able to wrap around a bit, and show other angles of a storyline.
GWR: Like Looking for Jane, this novel features women’s rights and bodily autonomy through the lens of historical context—why are these topics so important for you to write about?
HM: For me, bodily autonomy is everything. It’s quite simple: if we don’t have control over our own bodies and lives, then we are not free. We have nothing. And I think unfortunately, because cultures and governments around the world are constantly attacking women’s bodily autonomy in all kinds of ways, this theme is both universal and timeless. I hope one day it won’t be as relevant, frankly. Hopefully one day our rights to our own bodies and lives will be a given, the way they are for men. But for now, it’s still something we are constantly fighting for, so I’ll keep writing about it.
GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from Liberty Street?
HM: As with all my novels, my biggest hope is that my writing sparks meaningful conversations. The most gratification I get as a writer is when I hear from readers and book clubs that the themes, characters, or story got them talking, thinking, or seeing something from a new angle. So I hope for the same from Liberty Street. I hope people start talking openly about the things we’re used to whispering about.
GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?
HM: This is absolutely the hardest question you’ve put to me. I might go with strong coffee: it’s bold, dark, gives you a jolt, and, I hope, leaves you wanting another cup.
GWR: What are you working on now?
HM: I can’t say too much yet (though I’m aching to!), but it’s another dual timeline story that takes place at a real-life women’s college in the 1950s and present day. It has a feminist dark academia vibe, and deals with MeToo themes: men trying to control women’s voices and bodies. In movie terms, it’s like Dead Poets Society meets She Said. I’m very immersed in it right now, and hope to be able to share more soon!
*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.
