Who is Harriet Monckton? by Eilzabeth Haynes

Having just got around to thinking of myself as a crime novelist, it was quite a surprise to find myself writing a historical fictionalisation of a true story. This wasn’t my bag at all. I was only writing it because nobody else had, and as the murder of Harriet Monckton was – and still is – unsolved, I wanted to know what happened to her. The best way to find out about something, I always think, is to write about it.

I came across Harriet’s story by accident, when I was researching Victorian coroner’s inquests (as you do) in the National Archives in Kew. The inquest into her murder had been subject to such delay that, two years after her death, the foreman of the jury had written to the Home Secretary to ask him to compel the coroner to get a move on. Were it not for this correspondence, containing transcripts of the proceedings thus far, I’d never have heard of Harriet at all.

Harriet was found in the privy behind the chapel she frequented in Bromley, Kent, having swallowed a fatal dose of prussic acid – a horrible death, if mercifully quick. No vessel or bottle was found near her that could have contained the poison, and since she would have died within seconds, her death was treated as a murder and the whole town was thrown into disarray at the news. Quickly the coroner fixed upon a suspect, but the police had someone else in mind entirely; and yet there were several other people who might have had reason to want Harriet dead. The witness testimonies contained within the archive documents paint a vivid picture of those who loved Harriet, and those who pretended to.

The gossip and suspicion went into overdrive when the post mortem revealed that Harriet, the unmarried schoolteacher who was accustomed to attending chapel three times a day, was nearly six months pregnant – a secret she had taken to her grave.

This fascinating story partially explains why I’ve disappeared into a warm cave of research for the past year and a half; the archives are, after all, not short of unsolved murders. Harriet’s case is different. Not only was a young woman deprived of her life, her career as a teacher, her promising future; she and her unborn son had no justice, for nobody was ever arrested or tried for her murder. And it seems that in a short while she was entirely forgotten about.

The more time I spent with Harriet, trying to inhabit Bromley and London in 1843, the more I found connections to my own past; my great great great grandparents lived in the same street as her in 1841; the coroner’s son conducted the inquest into the suicide of my own great grandfather in Greenwich Park. I had worked in Bromley some years before and found myself imagining the same streets as they would have been in Harriet’s day.

The documents are, of course, still in the National Archives. Anyone can go and have a look, and I encourage you to do so – it’s an amazing place. Although I have fictionalised Harriet’s story, using the documents and the newspaper reports of the time as a factual base, you can decide for yourself if I’ve got it right – Harriet’s murderer is revealed on the very last page. It might not be possible to get justice for Harriet 175 years later, but at least I can make sure she is not forgotten.

MYRIAD LAUNCHES 2016 FIRST DRAFTS COMPETITION: FIRST CRIMES

Myriad invites entries for its First Drafts Competition for previously unpublished writers, this year with a crime theme and an all-star judging panel of bestselling crime authors:  Peter James, Elly Griffiths, Lisa Cutts, Elizabeth Haynes and Lesley Thomson. 

Now in its seventh year, the competition recognises promising work-in-progress by unpublished writers, be it a short story collection or the first few chapters of a novel. It is at the heart of Myriad’s mission to discover and nurture bold and exciting new writers. This year the competition will focus exclusively on crime and thrillers in celebration of the genre.

Myriad’s First Drafts Competition has uncovered and launched writers who have gone on to enjoy creative and commercial success. These include: Lisa Cutts, whose crime debut Never Forget has since been optioned by a major TV company; Nina de la Mer (author of 4 a.m. and Layla); Hannah Vincent (Alarm Girl), Sara Marshall-Ball (Hush) and S.E. Craythorne (How You See Me), all now published by Myriad. Other success stories include past winner Kirsty Logan (2010), who used her retreat to write a short story that she later expanded to become her novel, The Gracekeepers (Harvill Secker); Juliet West (shortlisted, 2013), whose novel-in-progress Before the Fall was published by Macmillan; American short story writer Owen D. Cluer (winner, 2014), who was signed by literary agent Becky Thomas (Johnson & Alcock); Al Brookes (shortlisted, 2013), whose novel The Gift of Looking Closely was the Guardian’s Self-published Book of the Month; Paul McVeigh (shortlisted, 2013), whose novel The Good Son has been published by Salt; and Kelleigh GreenbergJephcott (shortlisted, 2015), whose novel Swan Song won The Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel.

The prize is a week-long writing retreat in the luxurious surroundings of West Dean College near Chichester, as well as detailed editorial feedback from industry experts and six months’ mentoring from a Myriad author. Last year’s winner, Karly Stilling, says: ‘There aren’t many opportunities for emerging writers to get their work recognised in such a significant way, and the support offered by Myriad will go a long way to bolster my career at this early stage.’

Myriad’s Publisher and MD, Candida Lacey says: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity for new writers to receive encouragement and constructive feedback from publishing professionals and established authors, whether or not they win. There are few competitions for a work-in-progress and we’re proud to be championing emerging talent in this way. Myriad has built a reputation for discovering new voices and launching writing careers so it is especially apt to welcome three of our own bestselling crime authors to the judging panel this year alongside Elly Griffiths and Peter James."

Author and Programme Leader, MA Creative Writing and Publishing, West Dean College, Martine McDonagh says:  ‘Edward James established, in the early 20th Century, a tradition at West Dean College of supporting artists of all kinds in the early stages of their profession, a tradition we are pleased to continue through our creative writing programme. It is an absolute pleasure to work alongside Myriad Editions in this competition, which presents a rare opportunity for committed, but as yet unpublished authors.’

Entry criteria The competition is open to all writers who have not yet published or self-published a collection of stories or a novel. The closing date is 31 March 2016 and the winner will be announced at an event in July 2016. Full entry details are available at www.myriadeditions.com/competitions/first-drafts/

For more information please contact Emma Dowson, Publicist: 

020 8715 5043 • 07726 321622 • edowson@virginmedia.com

Does crime fiction always have to be about murder?

Lisa Cutts is a serving full-time detective constable with Kent police’s Major Crime Department. She is the author of two crime fiction novels in the DC Nina Foster series, Never Forget and Remember, Remember.

Most people wouldn’t even think about taking another’s life, but the subject seems to fascinate people. When it happens for real it wrecks lives and devastates communities, and the aftermath is horrific. Reading about its fictional counterpart is far safer and less intrusive. I’ve read about many more murders than the fifty or so I’ve investigated, but still I have that sense of ‘I have to know who done it’ – whether it’s my actual job or I’m off duty and reading a book. What every reader, as well as police officer, wants to know is why did they do it?

I think this is where readers’ interest is piqued, and not I hope because of the gruesomeness and finality of it all. It’s trying to understand what makes us do the things we do. As a species, we can be nasty and cruel to each other.

Of course, there are other serious crimes that have devastating and far reaching consequences but they are often more difficult to write about, to read about and sometimes more difficult to find out about.

As a serving police officer, there are things I’m not able to reveal in my crime fiction books, or anywhere else for that matter, because they may either jeopardise an investigation or result in the collapse of a trial. Apart from not wanting to face disciplinary action and get fired, I don’t want to see people get away with committing crime. I also wouldn’t want to put my colleagues’ lives or those of the public in danger.

An example of where investigative methods must be kept confidential is those used in hostage situations. Kidnaps are crimes in action and preservation of life is always the main priority. Some means of getting a hostage back safe and unharmed are subject to PII (public interest immunity) and won’t be discussed in open court or defence counsel made aware of all the facts. There’s a very real and obvious reason for that, but it doesn’t stop people wanting to know what really happened.

This makes it impossible to write about such a crime without either putting life in danger,

or getting the facts wrong. Personally, I’d rather write inaccurate procedures than equip people with all they need to abduct and kidnap. I’ve prided myself on the procedural accuracies of Never Forget and Remember, Remember, so I’ve had to shy away from some such crimes. It’s also true that many people have been the victim of crimes which haven’t threatened their life, such as burglary or theft. While no one denies that these crimes can greatly affect people, especially if it’s something that has happened in their homes it doesn’t usually result in death. Murder gets more media attention, it whips people into more of a frenzy and it is bound to see the police pull out all of the stops.

That aside, I haven’t limited Never Forget or Remember, Remember to murder but I’ve included drug dealing, artifice burglaries, handling stolen goods and assault on police. Those that commit murder don’t usually start off killing someone – there’s a whole host of other misdemeanours they usually engage in first.

Even if a writer choses to write about something other than death, there’s so much crime out there, we’ll never run out of things to put in novels and stories.

More information about Lisa can be found on her website and you can also follow her on Twitter @LisaCuttsAuthor.  You can follow her musings on her blog.  

Lisa Cutts talks about writing and bringing the job home!

Today's guest blog is by Lisa Cutts a serving police officer based in Kent.  In 2012 Lisa won the Myriad Editions Writers Retreat Competition.  Her debut novel Never Forget gives the reader an unique insight and perspective into the heart of the investigation from the point of view of the Police Major Incident Room.

When I began writing, crime fiction seemed the natural choice. I’ve been a police officer with Kent Police for seventeen years and the majority of that time has been spent within CID. I have worked in the Major Crime Department for six years, dealing with some of the more serious investigations within the county. My debut novel, Never Forget, is a police procedural and is inspired, although not based upon, some of the enquiries I have been involved in.

The novel follows Detective Constable Nina Foster through her first murder investigation. As a keen officer, rising through the ranks, she wants to work hard and be accepted: to stay on the most exciting investigation she’s ever likely to be involved in. Most officers working on a murder will only stay for a few days until they are sent back to their usual job. However, those who stay on the investigation, like Nina, are there for the long haul. In Never Forget, the number of victims, as well as suspects, increases. Before long, she gets involved in enquiries, becoming not only a crucial part of the Major Incident Room (MIR), but personally involved. As information amasses within the MIR, it leads towards the murderer’s identity and arrest, but at an unexpected price to Nina. I knew that I had to make her integral but to avoid compromising her role in the team. In reality, any officer becoming a liability would be immediately removed so I had to get the balance right: to maintain authenticity whilst keeping the reader interested.

My aim, besides writing the best police procedural I could, was to show the real side to policing: basing facts on powers of search, entry, detaining a prisoner and custody time limits, but showing that officers are usually decent people with their own problems, lives and sense of humour. We take what we do very seriously but even on the bleakest, darkest of days, we manage to make each other laugh. It’s not through lack of respect for those whose lives have been blighted by crime; it’s because we need to cope. Moreover, the politics of it all can be very frustrating. Never Forget, I hope, shows that the professionalism cannot exist without the camaraderie – they’re far too intertwined.

My initial idea for the novel was to begin with a briefing. It’s impossible to investigate anything, whether it is a shoplifting offence or a murder, without having the information to hand. The best way of doing that with a large, number of investigators is to put them in a room and give them details of what they’re dealing with. I drew on how a murder investigation naturally flows, factoring in some of the unexpected developments. I chose the police procedural structure, as I wanted to explain some of the frustrations and low points of being a police officer, as well as sharing the highs of a successful conviction. I wanted police officers to read it and think, “That’s accurate” and I wanted members of the public to read it and think, “I didn’t know they were up against all this as well as solving murders.”

One of the things I felt I should take care of when I started to write was to check with Kent Police’s Legal Department. As a forty-something-year-old female Detective Constable investigating murders for a living, writing about a forty-something-year-old female Detective Constable investigating fictional murders for a living, I foresaw a potential problem. While I wanted to show the authentic side of a murder investigation, Never Forget is fiction: the characters and the situations I’ve put them in, are not based on actual jobs I’ve worked on. I was careful not to reference victims or witnesses from the forty or so murders 

I’ve worked on, and that included not basing characters on colleagues.

Writing a crime novel has been a great experience and has given me an immense sense of achievement, especially as I’ve managed to fit this in around my job. However, there were a couple of problems I had to overcome. Like so many writers, especially those juggling work and families, finding time was an issue. The unpredictability of my job meant that I had to work around real-life murder investigations in order to be able to write about fictional ones. If I had a free evening or a day off, I set aside as much of it as I could to write but I had no idea what the next working day would bring and when I could expect to get home. Police officers can be called back to work at any time and are often told to stay on duty without warning. I did try to write as much as possible in November for NaNoWriMo – an annual, worldwide challenge for writers to produce 50 000 words in a month. Needless to say, with my job, I didn’t manage it but I had a great time trying.

Once I found time to write, settling down to do it wasn’t as much of a challenge as the edits. They were much tougher as by then I was working to my publisher’s schedule too. There was no procrastinating in case I was on duty when a murder was committed and didn’t get off duty for another eighteen hours, followed by cancellation of my days off.

On top of this, if I’d had a busy or stressful day dealing with victims, witnesses or suspects, my plans of going home to work on my book sometimes went out of the window. Naturally, I wasn’t always in the right frame of mind, so I would postpone writing until I felt able to separate my two jobs: some things are too disturbing to write down outside the confines of a nick.

The department I work in is within the Serious Crime Directorate and deals mostly with murders, rapes and kidnaps, although I have been involved in various investigations from counter-terrorism to rioting. It’s varied and interesting but involves an unbelievable amount of paperwork, so I’m used to writing and typing. Crime writing is a very different skill; it’s difficult but unlike police work, I’m never going to be called to court and asked questions under oath with a judge and jury looking on. This helped me put things into perspective but meant I had some sleepless nights over the accuracy of procedures in Never Forget. My worst-case scenario was that serving or retired police officers (such as my husband and dad) would read it and think I’ve made a huge error or omission. In addition, my Detective Chief Inspector might read it. How embarrassing would it be if he spotted a mistake?

Colleagues have been very supportive and interested in the entire process, from my first draft to seeing the book in print. A large number have said that they are looking forward to reading Never Forget when it was published on July 11th. I’ve been genuinely touched by their enthusiasm: I’ve assured them that they aren’t in it, so I’m convinced that their interest is about wanting to support me, rather than concern I’ve written about them.

It was certainly a challenge to get Never Forget completed but worth the hard work and lack of a social life. For the last eighteen months, my life has consisted of police work, writing crime fiction and sleeping. I wouldn’t have changed a thing, (apart for perhaps more sleep) and I’m already half way through the first draft of my next novel.

Never Forget’ by Lisa Cutts, published by Myriad, £7.99.

More information about Lisa can be found on her website and you can also follow her on Twitter @LisaCuttsAuthor.  You can follow her musings on her blog.  Never Forget also has a Facebook page.

The People’s Book Prize for Fiction awarded.

Congratulations!The Book Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Lesley Thomson for her crime novel A Kind of Vanishing. The result of the award was announced on 21 July 2010. The People’s Book Prize for Fiction was the brain child of the late Dame Beryl Bainbridge and is supported by the Publishers Association. A Kind of Vanishing was originally published in 2006 and tells the story of what happens to those that are left behind when a child goes missing without a trace.

Lesley Thomson is the first winner of this award and is the author of two critically acclaimed crime novels. Seven Miles from Sydney and A Kind of Vanishing

A review of A Kind of Vanishing can be found here.