Frannie Langton is a slave working as a house girl on a plantation in Jamaica who gets involved in some very grim experiments with her Master who is keen to find out the biological make up of the slaves and prove that black people are not human. As a mixed race slave, she feels like she doesn't fit in with anyone and after her Mistress teaches her to read she escapes her life by reading books. After some shocking events, she is brought to England by her Master and "gifted" to George and Marguerite Benham who she is later accused of murdering in their grand house. The book switches between her time in Jamaica to her time when she is in England. This is an account of her life from beginning to end and you are engrossed entirely waiting to discover if she really was capable of murdering The Benhams.

This is very much a gothic, eerie read. From the descriptions of human experiments to murders and laudanum fuelled episodes. It has all the elements you need for a creepy, mysterious historical novel. It depicts the lives of black people in the Georgian era vividly and the writing style is so immersive and beautifully descriptive. It captures the sights and sounds of both settings of Jamaica and England perfectly that I could picture it all in my mind clearly.

I found Frannie quite a disturbing character. Which I suppose is to be expected after all she has had to go through! Her life is tragic and cruel. There are so many upsetting ordeals throughout her whole life but she develops into such a strong character who manages to deal with all kinds of discrimination just because of the colour of her skin. The other white servants treat her with contempt and she feels very much alone. That is until she gets to know her mistress better and the relationship between the two is toxic and destined for disaster from the very start.

Throughout the story Frannie talks about the books she's reading and you see just how intelligent and how well spoken she is. Some of the things she says at times really stick with you in the book and afterwards as I am still thinking about them now. I particularly loved the quote "A man writes to separate himself from the common history; a woman writes to try to join it." I can see why her character is often compared to Jane Eyre in the way she is exceptionally clever but not given her chance to shine.

There are so many themes the author delves into throughout the book; gender discrimination, social class, race, sexuality, drugs, education and science. Sara Collins brings it all to life so clearly and I felt I learnt a lot from this book on this range of topics.

The only downside I found to this book was it seemed to be longer than it needed to be but it is still a book I would highly recommend to Historical Fiction fans. It is an authentic, stunning debut and the way the author dealt with such grim subjects was illuminating and incredible. As for who killed The Benhams.....No spoilers here!