An excerpt from "Readers and Writers" by Mary Ann Grossmann, book reviewer for Twin Cities.com, The Pioneer Press of Saint Paul, March 15, 2020, reads: "'The Hub of Hell: a True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Neighborhood, Murder, and Trial' --- If the phrase 'trial of the century' had been in use in the 1800s it surely would have described the case of Peter and Timothy Barrett... Porter, author of two previous books, spent 12 years researching what she calls this 'complex story of passion, betrayal, danger, heartbreak, and tremendous loss.' She brings to life through meticulous research the Barrett family, including the brothers' sister Mary, a Minneapolis milliner, and their father, John, as well as the young streetcar driver... Defense lawyers William Erwin and William Donahue are heroes as they try to keep their clients from the death penalty...
'The Hub of Hell' is a carefully researched, detailed story that shows how justice can be manipulated, and of a family torn apart by one member who betrayed them all."

Back cover:
"Northern Midwest winters are often as harshly bitter and confining as the iron bars of the old Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis. In the fall of 1887, three brothers were inmates there. It was an era of notorious outlaws, but unlike the gangs of Jesse James or Cole Younger, the story behind these brothers has been lost to history—until now. Theirs is a complex story of passion, betrayal, danger, heartbreak, and tremendous loss. Trials ensued. Convictions followed. Sentences passed. Justice would be served . . . but was it?"