The Second Last Woman in England - Maggie Joel

I received this book from Bex at her book giveaway.  As soon as I got this book in the post and saw the Russell Square address from the publishing company, I "eeeeee!'ed" liked a kid on Christmas morning, ripped open the envelope and started reading right by the mailbox.

The beginning pretty much gives away the major spoiler of the book.  What does "second-last woman in England" mean?  It means that Mrs. Harriet Wallis was the second-last woman in England... to be hanged, before capital punishment was abolished.  On the day of the Queen's coronation, Mrs. Harriet Wallis shot her husband, the shipping magnate Cecil Wallis.  With the climax of the plot out of the way, author Maggie Joel goes back to the beginning nine months earlier and slowly builds up to the burning "why" of the murder.

Slowly. Builds. Up.

I love the prologue and the shocking delivery of the murder, and it's nice how each chapter has the month and year so you can count down.  However, it took so long to build the characters (the bratty children, the quaint and poor nanny, the grumpy cook) that I lost interest until she describes Christmas because that's my favorite part of chronologically-driven plots (Harry Potter?  The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?  Seriously, the Christmas chapters are always the best).  After December, it finally picks up, which means it basically took me half the book to actually get into reading for fun.  All the brief flashbacks that Harriet has of her childhood in India with her now estranged brother (Freddie) in the earlier chapters finally come into sharp focus as her traumatic childhood is revealed.  The ending was excellent as the plot comes to full circle and you're like "ah yiss, I see", but it was slow getting to that point.  Yes, Harriet ended up being the second-last woman in England for murdering her husband, but darn it she did it for reasons!