by Kaylie Seed
Content Warning: sexual assault, animal abuse, child abuse
Laurie Glenn Norris has crafted a chilling debut novel based on a true unsolved crime from 1877 in Atlantic Canada. Created entirely from Glenn Norris’s imagination along with snippets of articles and stories surrounding Mary Harney’s disappearance, Found Drowned is an excellent piece of Canadian historical fiction. Seventeen-year-old Mary Harney is a dreamer and has a vivid imagination, traits that shouldn’t be associated with a young lady almost old enough to be wed. Mary’s home life is far from perfect, with an alcoholic father and a grandmother who doesn’t think highly of her, so it’s no wonder that Mary finds solace in her own thoughts. One evening during a domestic altercation between her parents, Mary goes missing from her home in Rockley, Nova Scotia. Some time later an unknown woman washes ashore in Bell’s Point, Prince Edward Island, and these two small towns become entwined as they try to solve this mystery.
Glenn Norris goes between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to paint a picture of what would have happened in 1877 when a suspected murder had been committed. It is clear to the reader that Glenn Norris has put a tremendous amount of time into researching the story of Mary Harney, the judicial and forensic procedures in the late 19th century, and also the areas in which Found Drowned takes place. Glenn Norris certainly has a way with words, and she manages to capture the reader’s attention very early on. The prose throughout Found Drowned is fantastic, and Glenn Norris has paid attention to detail when it comes to the era she has written about. While Found Drowned is a dark and melancholy novel, Glenn Norris wrote it in such a way that it allows the voice of a young woman, who had hers taken way too soon, be heard.
Thank you to Nimbus Publishing for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.