This is essentially a true crime story, set in New York City not long after the American Revolution. The city is still rebuilding after much of it was destroyed, and there are still a few loyalists around. The body of a young, single woman is found in a well, located in a somewhat rural area. Was it suicide, or murder? A young man is charged with the crime, and his defense team included Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who worked as a team to defend him. If this had been a fictional account, you can imagine the editor complaining that it was too far-fetched. But apparently, these two men did manage to work together, before they had their final falling out.
Collins describes what New York City was like in this time period, as well as giving profiles of the victim, and the accused murderer. They both lived in the same boarding house, so most of the other residents are described as well. And of course, there is a lot of information available about Hamilton and Burr. But to understand how the story played out, it helps to understand the setting. New York was already a metropolis, but in the summer, those who could left the city to avoid yellow fever. People returned in the winter, only to encounter streets that became almost impassible from the snow, not that they were easy to walk down during the rest of the year.
There is much that is familiar about this story. The public opinion was inflamed by wild accusations. People jumped to conclusions without very much actual evidence. But there are also aspects that are much different from today. The science of medicine, including autopsy, has advanced quite a bit since then. And aspects of the trial itself were surprising. While the jury (all white men, of course) was not exactly sequestered, they were not allowed to go home until the trial was over. Apparently, it was unusual for a trial to last more than a day, so there was no provision for what to do when it ran longer than that. They ended up sleeping on a floor in a government building.
If this was your family, how would you research them? The author relied on the published transcript from the trial for much of his information of the trial itself. But there is quite a bit of background information as well. This trial, and the events leading up to it, would have been fully covered in the newspapers of the time. Of course, much has been written about the history of New York City itself, and there were other prominent citizens involved with the trial besides Hamilton and Burr.