Sara Collins: The confessions of Frannie Langton, 9780241349199 Viking (Penguin Random House UK),  pub date: 4. April 2019, hardback

(German language rights were sold, but I could not find a publication date yet)

I am pretty sure “The confessions of Frannie Langton” will become a book club favorite and a word by mouth recommendation once published. Sara Collins worked as a lawyer before turning her true passion, writing, into a career. Her lawyerly skills definitely flow into “The confession of Frannie Langton” which reminded me at times of “Washington Black” by Esi Edugyan . Here too a slave’s life is shaped by their master’s decision to be allowed an education and involved in scientific experiments. Although "The Confession of Frannie Langton"  is written in a very different style, historical fiction mixed with a gripping murder mystery, the plight of people of color in the 19^th century, male or female, is acutely portrayed. Written as a confession at the end of her trial at the Old Bailey after being accused of having murdered her Mistress and Master, Frannie peels away layer by layer of her life story until she arrives at the truth.

This is a powerful tale of Jamaican slave Frannie Langton who arrives in London with her owner Langton after he has been expelled by his wife,  the owner of the sugar cane plantation “Paradise”. It is here where Frannie was brought up, allowed to read and write and help Langton with cruel and crazy experiments. She believes to be his confidant but he trades her in at the Belham estate where she learns that her whole life to this point has been an experiment these two men had dreamed up. Her life receives another twist when Madame, Marguerite Belham, an eccentric with a graving for laudanum and feminist ideas, falls for Frannie’s exotic looks and her free spirit seducing her into a lesbian relationship, the only love Frannie will ever experience.    

I personally found the middle section of the novel too long and less captivating but the first third and the last third are brilliantly written, totally engrossing with a heartbreaking ending making it a fascinating read.