A Victorian asylum. A woman imprisoned. A deadly secret.
England, 1875. London journalist, Harris Mortimer, visits a Hampshire lunatic asylum to investigate society’s treatment of the insane, only to find himself in a fateful encounter with a beautiful woman claiming to be wrongly incarcerated.
Horrified by a series of murders, he soon becomes drawn into the strange world of the asylum and begins to wonder who is truly mad and who is sane.
Back in London, Harris meets Nancy Carter, a young woman striving to become a music hall star. Nancy’s shocking act, based on madness and murder, has uncanny parallels with Harris’s recent experiences in Hampshire.
Is it all just a coincidence? To what lengths will one person go to exact their revenge?
As the fates of Harris and Nancy intertwine, they are about to discover the terrible consequences of uncovering the truth.
Music, madness and murder collide in this thrilling historical mystery for fans of Stacey Halls, Jessie Burton and Elizabeth Macneal. A perfect book club fiction selection, Murder at the Lunatics’ Ball discusses themes of social control, the female lunatic stereotype, and the struggle by women to earn their bread and find their voice in Victorian England.
R S Leonard was born in Cheshire, England, and after a long stint in London, then Hampshire, now lives back in her home county.
She’s always had a deep love of storytelling and history, inspired, no doubt, by her mum encouraging her to get the utmost out of the public library as a kid. She has a PhD in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture and MAs in Creative Writing and Victorian Studies. These inspired her recently-published second historical mystery novel, Murder at the Lunatics’ Ball, as well as her first, The Body, the Diamond and the Child.
By day, she works in the non-profit sector.
rsleonardbooks.com | R S Leonard, Novelist
Dr Rachel S Leonard (@drrsleonard) • Instagram photos and videos
My thoughts: This was an interesting read, with several very surprising twists along the way.
Journalist Harris Mortimer is sent to write about the modern asylum for The Times newspaper, a family friend happens to be the senior doctor at one in Hampshire, and is here he meets both inmates and staff, although at times he struggles to see who is truly mad.
He also meets Titania Rossetti, a beautiful patient who seems to be terrified of something or someone at the asylum. He’s told she suffers from a specific type of melancholy – an Ophelia – heartbroken from lost love. This was an actual diagnosis. There is a weird focus on women needing to fit into specific categories at the asylum, and Harris finds the whole thing peculiar.
The titular murder does indeed take place at a ball (of sorts) organised for the inmates. It won’t be the only one. Shocking and depraved, the murderer is among the residents, both patients and staff, and Harris is on the frontline. The reporting makes his name and on returning to London he is riding high.
Meanwhile Nancy Carter, actress, returns home too. She’s been away, supposedly in Birmingham, but on return must get back into her sister’s good books and rebuild her performing career.
As Harris spins into madness, Nan works to build a new, successful life, and leave any evidence of the recent past, and her activities, behind her.
There were times when I didn’t think Harris was particularly bright, especially when Miss Rossetti and her friend Miss Millais meet him for tea. There are clues about his beloved’s reality but he just can’t seem to see them.
Nan is a brilliant character, both monstrous in her rage and revenge, her strange stage act that plays with murder and madness, but also sweet and beguiling, trying to find a way to take care of what’s left of her family.
This was an incredibly interesting and clearly well researched book, I am interested in the treatment of mental illness historically as it varies wildly and so much of it seems utterly barbaric. What Titania experiences demonstrates this, while some doctors are keen to treat their patients gently and with kindness, others prefer the more inhumane ideas that preceded them. But the true madness lies elsewhere in this story.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 