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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Based on true mid-nineteenth century stories: The Murder of Harriet Monckton & The Hunger

1/10/2018

10 Comments

 
Two novels based on real-life deaths in the same decade of the mid-nineteenth century, deaths that were never completely explained. The first of a young woman in southern England, the second of dozens of pioneers heading for the American Wild West. The books’ female authors have perhaps taken different approaches to their source material. See what you think.


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The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes

Harriet Monckton is soon to leave Bromley for a teaching post in Arundel when she’s found dead in the privy of the dissenting chapel. When the autopsy reveals she’s swallowed a fatal dose of prussic acid, the Reverend George Verrall is the only one of her friends convinced it was suicide. But when it emerges that the twenty-three-year-old was six months pregnant, the whole town is in shock.

Called to give evidence to the inquest, all four point-of-view characters of this Victorian crime novel have something to hide. Thomas Churcher, a shy young man whom his neighbours believe to be lacking in intelligence, has been seen walking out with her; Frances Williams, her fellow teacher and classic outsider, loved Harriet as more than a friend. Both Verrall, and Richard Field, her former landlord in London, have had sex with her, not always with her consent.

Coroner and jury hear the witness testimonies, not only from these four but from other townsfolk, including Harriet’s mother and sister and the members of her church. But no verdict is returned until, over two years later, the inquest is reopened, along with old wounds. Despite additional insights through the reverend’s “confession” and Harriet’s diary, the reader is kept guessing as to the identity of the murderer until the very end.

Stumbling upon the unresolved murder case from 1843 in the National Archives, Elizabeth Haynes felt compelled to seek literary justice for Harriet and her unborn child. I found the writing strong, the characters interesting and I enjoyed the depiction of smalltown life – particularly religious hubris and the suspicion of independent women – of almost two centuries ago. But I felt she was too faithful to her source material in the drawn-out inquest, as the
mystery doesn’t justify a novel almost 500 pages long. More typical crime readers might disagree.
 
Thanks to Myriad Editions for my review copy. For another novel about a breakaway church, this time in Scotland, see my review of
In the Blink of an Eye.


The Hunger by Alma Katsu

George Donner leads the wagon train out from Springfield, Illinois, at the end of winter, confident they’ll make it to California before the next winter comes. A party of single men and families, with varying degrees of fitness and wealth, they’re united in their hopes of a better life. Some fleeing adversity, others imbued with a sense of adventure, they know that, midway through the nineteenth century, this won’t be an easy ride. Some of the group’s anxiety settles on traversing Native American territory; others locate the threat on rivalries and tensions within. But no-one anticipates the biggest struggle will be for their very survival, and their sanity too.
 
Based on the true story of
the Donner party, Alma Katsu directs her large cast of characters, and their differing motivations and foibles, with ease (although it inevitably takes longer for the reader to distinguish who’s who). She zooms in on some of the more quirky among them: Charles Stanton, a decent man burdened by another’s guilt; James Bryant, who leaves the party early seeking answers to a niggling question about Native American spirituality; Elitha Donner, a teenager who hears voices; Tamsen, her stepmother, a herbalist shunned as a witch.
 
The titular hunger doesn’t wait until supplies run out to hit them. It encroaches on the camp when the first child goes missing from his tent. Discovering his body some days later, the flesh stripped from his bones, the men insist it must be wolves. But the evidence mounts of something yet more disturbing. By the time they can face the truth, it might be too late.
 
Although I was expecting a story about cannibalism, I wasn’t sure what to make of this thread. Bryant develops some theories about a strange infection from his halting conversations with Washoe people, and the medical speculation reminded me of another affliction purging people of their humanity in
The People in the Trees. But it transformed a story of hubris and exploration into a horror story when, for me, there was horror enough in the group dynamics and the cruelty of the climate and terrain.
 
Thanks to Bantam press for my proof copy.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
10 Comments
Norah Colvin link
2/10/2018 01:20:28 pm

Both these books have a bit of the intrigue about them, Anne. What you said of the first re the distrust of independent women reminded me of a book for which I attended the launch on the weekend. The book "The Killing of Louisa" was written by my cousin-in-law Janet Lee and tells of a woman convicted and hanged in Australia in 1889 for killing two husbands. She was tried four times by all-male juries.I haven't read the book yet, but it sounds interesting. Janet wrote it as a first person record from Louisa's point of view. It seems strong independent women are often cause for suspicion.

Reply
Annecdotist
8/10/2018 06:42:17 pm

Thanks for sharing that story, Norah, and hope the book is as satisfying as its premise. A lot of misogyny in the news right now – those stories keep needing to be told. And apologies for the delay in finding your comment – I thought it was only WordPress that sent friends to Spam!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
13/10/2018 12:46:58 pm

I guess what WordPress can do, others want to do too. :)

Annecdotist
13/10/2018 01:09:57 pm

It seems so. They had the audacity to send your reply to my reply to Spam too – definitely not the way to treat one of my blog’s main supporters. But at least I had the wit to check this time!

Charli Mills
5/10/2018 09:30:14 pm

Ah, Anne, you read a book that led you to my later childhood hometown. I grew up in the Sierras, 80 miles south of Donner Pass and went to school with many Washoe friends. That's not often a tribe one sees mentioned in fiction. I'd be very curious to know why Katsu mentions them, as they wintered in the Carson Valley, not up where the Donner Party got stuck. I will definitely be reading this book. The hometown where I was born is where several survivors settled. It's always been a remarkable story imbued with mythology and horror. There's a monument nearby dedicated to the pioneers and it is as tall as the snow was deep that unfortunate winter. Often people leave offerings of food (no kidding).

Elizabeth Haynes's book is another I'd enjoy, not for the crime so much but for the idea of giving literary justice to a forgotten woman's story. Thank you for sharing both books by women who can give different perspectives to history than the male dominated lens.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/10/2018 05:17:51 pm

Thanks, Charli, I’m glad they appealed. I didn’t realise that was so close to your former home territory – the proof copy I read didn’t half the map that’s included in the final version and it wasn’t until I was writing the review that I checked it out and found how close they were (relatively speaking) to safety. Impossible for me to tell as a complete outsider how accurate she’s being but it seems she is particularly interested in the Washoe ideas about na’it – which she translates as the hunger – you might be familiar with this but a quick search didn’t show anything for me – so she might have knowingly or unknowingly moved them to explore these spiritual beliefs. She seems to have tried to balance the reality of the prejudice of the times with a more contemporary anthropological interest. I’d be interested in how it comes over to you.

Reply
Charli Mills
11/10/2018 05:11:29 am

I hadn't heard of Washoe stories about the Donner Party so I did some searching and found that they did indeed interact with the fated pioneers and witnessed the cannibalism, although it doesn't specifically mention na’it. The Washoe are culturally and linguistically similar to the Navajo. This comes from a USDA Forest Service oral history:

"Donner Party
In 1846, the Washoe noticed the famed Donner party wagon train because they had never seen wagons before. The Washoe describe seeing the wagons and wondering if they were a “monster snake”. In route to California, the Donner party reached the Sierras late in the year and got trapped in snow for a particularly harsh winter. The Washoe checked in with the stranded travelers a few times and brought them food when they could. Even so, in the face of suffering and starvation, the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism. When the Washoe witnessed them eating each other they were shocked and frightened. Although the Washoe faced hard times every winter and death by starvation sometimes occurred, they were never cannibalistic. Stories about the situation, some gruesome and some sympathetic, were told for many generations and are said to add to the general mistrust of the white people."

Reply
Norah Colvin link
13/10/2018 12:46:14 pm

Thanks, Charli. It's interesting to have a historical report to read and provide a little more background.

Reply
Annecdotist
13/10/2018 01:17:53 pm

Agreed! I have an awful lot to learn about Native American history – I’m not much further on from the movies of my childhood about “cowboys and Indians”.

Annecdotist
13/10/2018 01:15:22 pm

Thanks for sharing this extra bit of background, Charli. I’m glad the inclusion of the Washoe in the narrative wasn’t completely off beam. And interesting to get their perspective on the cannibalism – they must have been appalled!

Reply



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