Book Review: The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes

This was a wonderful find that arrived, quite literally, on my doorstep. I was sent a review copy by the good folks at Meryl Zegarek Public Relations. I hadn’t heard of the book or of Harriet Monckton, but was immediately drawn to the tale both by the blurb and the cover (mine is different than the one Amazon lists – and, I think, much more evocative; it is the one I’ve included as a result). My instincts proved strong on this one – I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, even despite it’s being a bit more drawn out than I think it had to be AND it’s being in a variety of narrative formats all presented as one tale.

I’m not normally a fan of unusual writing formats. I often find them to distract me from the essential telling of the story. In this book, Elizabeth Haynes has presented Harriet’s life and death through a mixture of first-person narration by each of the main characters involved in the investigation into the murder, letters from several characters, and Harriet’s diary entries. The actual whodunit is presented in an epilogue.

On it’s face, it’s a bit of a mish-mash of formats and frankly I wasn’t sure if it would work for me, but it absolutely did. I found myself drawn into the first-person perspectives immediately; each is differentiated by an identifier, so it was always clear whose point of view the reader was engaging in. I think the first-person format is the easiest way to draw readers in; it’s almost impossible not to find yourself in the midst of the action when reading it in first person. The diary and letter entries were a great way to add the behind-the-scenes details that would have been difficult to incorporate otherwise, and the epilogue was necessary to solve the riddle.

I must admit that I found the first-person sections to run a little long and to start to feel a bit redundant and drawn out – although that may have been intentional, as a reflection of the extended nature of the inquest into Harriet’s death. It certainly added to the weighty feeling of desperation for conclusion, which I imagine must have been on the minds of all involved as things dragged out over a course of years. It did make the reading a bit slow-going for a while though… Still, I never lost interest and remained engaged and eager to see who was responsible – and when the conclusion was finally revealed, it caught me by surprise and I found the resolution most satisfying to read.

If you enjoy historical fiction that is immersive and fully pulls you into a time and place, you are likely to enjoy Haynes’ writing style. Her language pulled me into the characters’ lives and world from the opening pages. Harriet’s world is a dark and often unfortunate one, but Haynes presented it in a matter-of-fact style that I think made the emotional elements of the story resonate all the more strongly for it. There is an Afterword in which she explains which bits are fact and which extrapolation; I for one think she did an excellent job with her fictionalized elements. The story felt genuine and whole as she told it, which is a credit both to her writing and her research. From the looks of it, very few people did right by Harriet Monckton. Elizabeth Haynes is one of them.

Thanks to the author and Meryl Zegarek Public Relations for my obligation-free review copy.