Everybody Contemplates Murder at Some Time in Their Life

We meet Clara Blackstone at the start of this book when she’s on her way to her grandmother in India who’s dying. Then, the story looks in a flashback to the events in the last 6 months that brought her here. After she suffered a breakdown following a stillbirth her husband locked her up in an asylum, first in the infamous Bedlam and later in a ‘modern’ private one. There, an enlightened doctor released her, much to her husband’s displeasure. He wants a meek and obedient wife that makes his will her own. In Durham she meets her husband’s new friends, the Buckley’s. The wife, Emma gets Clara interested in visiting female prisoners. She befriends the infamous child- and husband-killer Mary Ann Cotton and even becomes obsessed with her. It is a strange and unbalanced friendship where it’s questionable who’s helping and influencing who. In the same period, husband Henry makes it very clear that he wants to get rid of her and lock her up indefinitely.

This is a haunting, chilling and even disturbing story. And, apart from the (not all that) happy ending, all too realistic! So many women were locked up for such devious reasons as that their husbands or fathers were displeased with them. It is simply heart-breaking to know what our foremothers have endured and suffered.

Obviously, there are outdated opinions and social conventions mentioned that are simply infuriating and beyond belief. And we think that our men are paternalistic? Think again! Some of the opinions here are worse than an incel website, and those are gross! Wel, now I know where they originate! I pity every woman of that era. The false picture we get from TV series as ' the Murdock mysteries’ of clever, strong, articulate and even powerful women is so wrong! I’ m a big fan of that series, regardless.

From the first time that I met Henry, I disliked him for being condescending and belittling. Unfortunately, that was but the start of his disgusting antics. He turns out to be the real creep, his friend and tutor Buckley is just as bad. Even at that time, I can’t belief that his behaviour was considered appropriate or he would not try to hide it behind doctor talk and pseudo-science.

This book is very well researched and at the end there is a list of reading material for those who are interested in knowing more about Mary Ann and the evolution of psychiatric treatment in the last 150 years.

The descriptions are very vivid and not for the fainthearted; the inhuman treatment of patients (with or without disorders), the very scene of the hanging and the mindboggling outdated theories are all described very detailed.

I cannot decide whether Mrs. Cotton was guilty or not. Maybe for some of the crimes, but not for all of them. There was a lot of infant mortality at the period and many, if not most, children never reached the age of 5. Even in the 1960’s people still died from arsenic and lead poisoning brought on by wallpaper and lead piping. So, I agree with the author that she did not get a fair trial and was convicted by the media before her trial even started.

The friendship between both women can only exist because Clara feels a connection with her because of her own bad experiences in the asylum. When comparing prison and asylum in this story, I’s choose prison because there you’re released eventually (well most are) while those in an asylum where simply forgotten. There is a big class division between the 2 women and most often it is Mary Ann that gives the better advice. Most of her opinions are more like those we now support. What doesn’t mean that I can agree with murdering children, not even with murdering a bad husband. Although I can understand the murder of some of the latter, it is not for an individual to decide who can live and who not. But if you’re a captive, is it tolerated to kill your jailer?

This is as much a social study of the period as a criticism and I’m certain that the author does not support the nasty onions he writes about.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley and Inkshares and this is my honest, unbiased review of it.