The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Summary (from the publisher): They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done?

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this novel from HarperCollins. 

Frannie Langton was raised as a house slave in Jamaica before being brought to London to work as a maid for Mr. and Mrs. Benham. But now Frannie is on trial for their murder and while on trial, recounts the story of her life for the reader. Yet even Frannie is unsure of whether or not she is guilty. 

Primarily a modern retelling of the slave narrative, this novel is also a love story and a murder mystery. The book has some nice turns of phrase, such as "his voice laps steady as water against a hull" (4) and the life experienced by Frannie is tragic. Providing her with a voice to tell her story empowers her in a way that life never does. However, the plot ultimately fell flat for me. Much was made about Frannie's twisted history in Jamaica and the great love she felt for her mistress, yet neither is fully fleshed out in believable ways. It felt as if the book couldn't decide if it wanted to be about the twisted slave experiments in Jamaica or the same sex love story that ends in tragedy. In short, this novel had a lot of different elements thrown into it, none of which are fully explored or resolved. 

I found this novel to have striking parallels with Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace. Although this novel features a slave from Jamaica, both novels feature a housemaid in England who is on trial for the murders of her employers and who claims to have no memory of the night of the event. 

Stars: 3