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roseanne Montillo

Fire on the Track: Betty Robinson and the Victory of the First Olympic Women

An Entertainment Weekly Must List selection

Film Rights to DreamWorks and Kennedy Marshall (Seabiscuit, Lincoln, Jurassic Park)

A 2017 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection

A Boston Globe Best Book of 2017


“Fascinating... Montillo is a brilliant storyteller...an engaging, insightful look at an era in women's sports.”
— Publishers Weekly


The inspiring and irresistible true story of the women who broke barriers and finish-line ribbons in pursuit of Olympic Gold.
 
When Betty Robinson assumed the starting position at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, she was participating in what was only her fourth-ever organized track meet. She crossed the finish line as a gold medalist and the fastest woman in the world. This improbable athletic phenom was an ordinary high school student, discovered running for a train in rural Illinois mere months before her Olympic debut. Amsterdam made her a star. 
 
But at the top of her game, her career (and life) almost came to a tragic end when a plane she and her cousin were piloting crashed. So dire was Betty's condition that she was taken to the local morgue; only upon the undertaker's inspection was it determined she was still breathing. Betty, once a natural runner who always coasted to victory, soon found herself fighting to walk.  
 
While Betty was recovering, the other women of Track and Field were given the chance to shine in the Los Angeles Games, building on Betty's pioneering role as the first female Olympic champion in the sport. These athletes became more visible and more accepted, as stars like Babe Didrikson and Stella Walsh showed the world what women could do. And—miraculously—through grit and countless hours of training, Betty earned her way onto the 1936 Olympic team, again locking her sights on gold as she and her American teammates went up against the German favorites in Hitler's Berlin.  
 
Told in vivid detail with novelistic flair, Fire on the Track is an unforgettable portrait of these trailblazers in action. 


A former library research assistant, Roseanne Montillo holds her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, where she teaches courses on literature, in addition to courses at Lesley and Tufts Universities.  


Published by Crown/Penguin Random House in 2017. 


More praise for Fire on the Track

“A worthy addition to the genre...Montillo succinctly adds context to prevailing—and appalling—views and thus elevates the accomplishments of all the women competing in track.” — New York Times Book Review

“Inspiring… riveting.” — Entertainment Weekly

"Montillo writes about [Betty Robinson] and her era with precision." —Wall Street Journal

"A tightly woven, flowing narrative... Just as Laura Hillenbrand, in Unbroken, earned acclaim for resurrecting the life of Louis Zamperini, an overlooked American war hero and Olympian, Montillo deserves praise for sharing with honesty and integrity the remarkable stories of these resilient trailblazers. This is a must-read, certain to inspire a new generation of athletes with its fascinating slice of Olympic and women’s sports history."
— Booklist  starred review

"Rich... this well-balanced biography and history of a groundbreaking female track star recalls a time and an athlete worth celebrating. Sports enthusiasts and women's history buffs will be captivated by Robinson and her fellow trailblazers. Montillo's in-depth research and highly accessible style make this a timely and appropriate choice for public and school libraries."
— Library Journal

"Fire on the Track tells the powerful story of one woman’s success in breaking an early glass ceiling in women’s Olympic sports.  The triumph, tragedy, and redemption that punctuated Betty Robinson’s life present a commentary on 1930’s America and the trailblazing courage of ordinary women to change the country’s thinking about the abilities of their gender. Using anecdote and insight, Montillo has written an important book, bringing to light a resonant piece of history.— Lucinda Franks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Timeless: Love, Morgenthau and Me 

"Roseanne Montillo has written a must-read, exhilarating story about a remarkable time in American sports history when women proved that they could be champions. Going against cultural expectations, these athletes managed to achieve greatness during the toughest of times. Betty Robinson is a hero for the ages. Her breathtaking journey from catastrophe to ultimate victory made me stand up and cheer!" — Lydia Reeder, author of Dust Bowl Girls

"Here's an uplifting new entry for your shelf of Olympics inspiration. Male rowers have Boys in the Boat and female runners now have Fire on the Track. The dawn of women's track comes to life in history that reads like fiction, brimming with character and drama." 
— William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of  Cape Cod and The Lincoln Letter    


Roseanne Montillo Deliberate Cruelty Book Cover

Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire’s Wife, and the Murder of the Century


“The tragic collision of two lives—Truman Capote and socialite-murderess Ann Woodward—makes for riveting reading in Roseanne Montillo's memorable account of two social-climbing strivers and the lives they touched.” — Meryl Gordon, New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Astor Regrets


This scintillating, glittery look at the darkly intertwined fates of infamous socialite Ann Woodward and literary icon Truman Capote sweeps us to the upper echelons of Manhattan’s high society—where even the richest cannot escape murder and infamy.

When Ann Woodward shot her husband, banking heir Billy Woodward, in the middle of the night in 1955, her life changed forever. Though she claimed she thought he was a prowler, few believed the woman who had risen from charismatic showgirl to popular socialite. Everyone had something to say about the scorching scandal afflicting one of the richest and most famous families of New York City, but no one was more obsessed with the tale than Truman Capote.

Acclaimed for his bestselling nonfiction work In Cold Blood, Capote was looking for new material and followed the scandal from beginning to end. Like Ann, he too had ascended from nobody to toast of the town, but he always felt like an outsider, even among the exclusive coterie of high society women who adored him. He decided the story of Ann’s turbulent marriage would be the basis of his masterpiece—a novel about the dysfunction and sordid secrets revealed to him by his high society “swans”—never thinking that it would eventually lead to Ann’s suicide and his own scandalous downfall.

Fascinating and deliciously page-turning, Deliberate Cruelty is a haunting cross between true crime and literary history--perfect for fans of Furious Hours, Empty Mansions, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.


Published by Atria/Simon & Schuster in November, 2022.


More praise for Deliberate Cruelty

"[A] sharp sliver of true crime...a vertiginous spiral of social death." — The New York Times

“Montillo’s deeply researched exposé of the untimely downfall of glittering icons haunted by fundamental insecurities and entrenched demons is a dishy true-crime, literary critique mash-up.” — Booklist

"Deliberate Cruelty captures a multi-branched narrative of true crime and gossip and scandal, a literary history, noir mystery, and tragic denouement." —The Daily Beast

"This engaging, well-researched book will appeal to true-crime aficionados, Capote fans, and anyone interested in a darkly intriguing story well told. A compelling mix of true crime and literary biography." — Kirkus Reviews

"A hard-hitting true crime story and an interesting piece of cultural history, bringing out new facets of some well-known personalities to create a shocking story." — CrimeReads Most Anticipated Books of the Fall

“Brash and beautiful, Ann Woodward’s escape from a hardscrabble past and her ambitious rise from model and showgirl to the upper tiers of New York’s high society is a both a rags to riches story and a cautionary tale -- just the kind of story literary provocateur Truman Capote adored. In crafting the side-by-side tales of two arriviste strivers born of humble roots, Roseanne Montillo has given us a thrilling, tragic, Gatsby-esque saga. A wild romp of a story, boldly and beautifully told." — Neal Thompson, author of The First Kennedys

“When the life of Ann Woodward, self-made socialite from Kansas, collided with that of Truman Capote, genius jester at the court of the beautiful people, the result was a twentieth century morality tale of enduring fascination, rooted in a particular kind of American dream - the one that seeks entry into the sleek, exigent world of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Roseanne Montillo tells the story supremely well, with a cool relentlessness reminiscent of Zola.” — Laura Thompson, author of The Heiresses


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The Wilderness of Ruin


“A riveting true-crime tale that rivals anything writers in the 21st century could concoct. ... [Montillo is] a masterly storyteller.” — Publishers Weekly


The Wilderness of Ruin is historical murder mystery—a window into the criminal, psychopathic mind of a child, set against the backdrop of Boston’s great fire of 1872, and shaped by the insights of a literary friendship bent on determining the nature of evil. 
 
Until the 1870s, the term psychopath was not used in general terms, much less for children. But when Jesse Pomeroy’s crimes were discovered, they opened a door of complex inquiry into the roots of the criminal mind. Even today, it is hard to imagine that psychopathic children exist; but they do. In the 1870s, this notion disturbed even physicians who crossed Jesse's path.  
 
The Wilderness of Ruin deals with the cultural landscape of that time; the dime novels, which Jesse Pomeroy read voraciously, and the crime-driven journalism that sometimes made light of the horrid events taking place across the country, often influencing the outcome of trials. Much like today, where violent video games and television shows are blamed for some of the actions children take, in the 1800s, dime novels, depicting scenes of beheadings, murders, and rape, were said to have a negative impact on those who read them. Jesse's lawyers insisted, to no avail, that his love of these books had caused his mental breakdown and encouraged him to try his hand at murder. 
 
Lastly, The Wilderness of Ruin is the story of a friendship: between the writer Herman Melville and the physician Oliver Wendell Holmes. Their pursuit of understanding Melville’s mental instability and his efforts to stave off what he believed was inevitable—the twisted mind. Holmes, his friend and doctor, counseled that Melville was not going crazy, despite Melville's family belief to the contrary. Holmes was an expert on Jesse Harding Pomeroy and eventually Jesse's trial proved to be the inspiration for Melville's last work, the novella Billy Budd. 


Published by William Morrow in 2015.


More praise for The Wilderness of Ruin:
 
The Wilderness of Ruin is a captivating tale of depravity in the Athens of America. Roseanne Montillo masterfully conjures a lost Boston where a teen-age ‘demon’ hunts children and the city itself is a tinderbox ripe for the flames.” — Mitchell Zuckoff, author of the New York Times bestsellers Lost in ShangriLa and Frozen in Time
 
“Supremely creepy. ... As thrilling as it is disturbing.” — The Boston Globe
 
“A compulsively fascinating and chilling read on the nature of evil.” — The Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“A lively, evocative reinvigoration of Boston’s Gilded Age. ... Cinematic. ... A chillingly drawn, expertly researched slice of grim Boston history.”
Kirkus Reviews
 
“A dramatically told history of murder, madness, and urban growing pains.” — Shelf Awareness
 


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The Lady and Her Monsters

An Amazon Best Book of the Month


“Montillo achieves a freshness through her lively narrative approach and a fascination with long-ago science and its ethics that sparks across the pages.” — The New York Times Book Review


A captivating work of narrative nonfiction in the vein of The Professor and the Madman and The Monster of Florence, Roseanne Montillo’s The Lady and Her Monsters brings to life the fascinating times, startling science, and real-life horrors behind Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein.  Delving into a world that teeters between superstition and medicine, between sanity and madness—where fame-hungry scientists perform for rabid, wide-eyed audiences and maniacal body snatchers toil away in castle dungeons—it’s also the personal story of an artist’s ingenuity, how the demons in her own life and the surrounding world pushed her to weave one of the greatest horror stories ever told.

Evoked famously in James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein, the genesis of Shelley’s novel is woven inextricably into literary mythology—on a stormy night at Lord Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva, “a hideous phantasm of a man” haunted Shelley in her dreams, and thus, as the legend goes, Frankenstein was born.  But is it truly possible that this classic work was born of nothing more than a dream?  Montillo reveals that Shelley and the characters in her book were not the only ones preoccupied with resurrecting the dead; for the author, who mingled in highly educated, enlightened circles, had documented knowledge of the many groundbreaking, daring scientists who were cropping up across the continent—anatomists like Giovanni Aldini, Andrew Ure, and the occultist Johan Konrad Dippel (resident of the real life Castle Frankenstein in the 18th century), who were fueled by the newly discovered possibilities of electricity and human re-animation.

For fans of horror, science and literature, The Lady and Her Monsters is a rich, revealing, sometimes shocking exploration of the little-known movements and people that influenced one of the 19th century’s greatest female writers.


Published in by William Morrow in 2013.


More praise for The Lady and Her Monsters
 
 “A delicious and enticing journey into the origins of a masterpiece.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
 “Enthusiatic prose... A Spirited investigation of the bizarre times that inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” — Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Her narrative… rattles enjoyably through a lurid and restless landscape. … Equally a literary and a scientific endeavor.” — The Wall Street Journal
 
“With a flair for both drama and detail, Montillo breathes her own kind of life into the story of the men determined to discover its very elements.”
Discover magazine 

 “Spills the dirt on the making of the 19th-century novel--affairs, family drama, a lake house with Lord Byron!-and paints a grimly fascinating picture of the dissections and experiments in “animal electricity” that inspired the gothic tale.” — Mental Floss
 
“Montillo’s book is a welcome tribute to the literary, and especially the scientific, roots of the story.” — The Commercial Dispatch
 
“Montillo never loses sight of the fact that it was Mary Shelley’s imagination that sewed the pieces together - and provided the vital spark that keeps the tale alive nearly two centuries on.” — New Scientist
 
“A haunting picture of an era in which science and the arts overlapped, a perfect storm in which inspiration for “Frankenstein” could strike. Like a bolt of lightning.” — The Washington Post


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Atomic Women: The Untold Stories of the Scientists Who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb


“Montillo powerfully explains how the brilliant figures of Atomic Women overcame gender bias and pursued scientific passions . . . . An impressive commemoration of extraordinary scientists.” ―Shelf Awareness


Bomb meets Code Girls in this nonfiction narrative about the little known female scientists who were critical to the invention of the atomic bomb — and the moral implications of their work.

They were leaning over the edge of the unknown and were afraid of what they would discover there...

Meet the World War II female scientists who worked in the secret sites of the Manhattan Project. Recruited not only from labs and universities from across the United States but also from countries abroad, these scientists helped in - and often initiated - the development of the atomic bomb, taking a starring role in the Manhattan Project. In fact, their involvement was critical to its success, though many of them were not fully aware of the consequences.

The atomic women include Lise Meitner and Irène Joliot-Curie (daughter of Marie Curie), who led the groundwork for the Manhattan Project from Europe; Elizabeth Rona, the foremost expert in plutonium, who gave rise to the "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the bombs dropped over Japan; and Leona Woods, Elizabeth Graves, and Joan Hinton, who were inspired by European scientific ideals but carved their own paths.

This book explores not just the critical steps toward the creation of a successful nuclear bomb, but also the moral implications of such an invention.


Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2020.


More praise for Atomic Women:

"Montillo's detailed and organized writing stresses the importance of these women, who were as indispensable to the Manhattan Project as more well-known men."―School Library Journal

"Montillo's woman-centered narrative fills a major gap in the popular understanding of how the atomic bomb came to be."―Publishers Weekly

“Lively, well-researched, and comprehensible...A useful work of scientific history.” — Kirkus

"A well-researched book on women scientists and their roles in developing the atomic bomb."―Booklist

"Recommended for readers with an interest in the sciences, women's studies, and who support the ethic of giving women their due for their accomplishments."―School Library Connection

"An eye-opening historical reconstruction that respects the intellectual diversity of the women behind and within the Manhattan Project."―BCCB