Reviews with content warning for Murder - Le meurtre de Harriet Monckton

I really enjoyed this! I liked reading each perspective and I was desperate to find out what “really” happened to Harriet. The suspects were all pretty shady, though to be honest it was always pretty obvious who is was.

Yes, Harriet could out the lesbian schoolteacher, but Miss Frances is clearly not a murderer and cared deeply for Harriet, even if they didn’t work out. Tom Churcher is clearly in love with Harriet and with his own shakiness, I doubt he’d be able to keep such a secret as killing a woman directly, and the other guy—Richard—was too far away. Of course it’s the shady preacher George Verral who is always talking to himself in his narration and is apparently a serial sexual abuser. He seems to think these women are coming on to him from his narration, but Harriet’s diary casts doubt on his narrative. I thought, well it isn’t too obvious to be him? Maybe if really is Miss Williams and the Reverend is a red herring? Or maybe even Tom or Richard Field! Even in his letter to Richard he sounded suspicious. So it kind of felt like a cop out that it’s actually his wife who poisoned her. Like, lady why not poison your serial rapist husband instead of the girl he abused?

Either way, it was still a good story that felt historically accurate and plausible. It’s sad that in real life Harriet’s murder was never solved, though I’m sure the responsible party was likely the father of Harriet’s unborn child.

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