The Savage Instinct

August 1872. Clara Blackstone, travels up to Durham City to meet her husband, Henry, a newly appointed Professor of Mathematics at Durham University. It is supposed to be a fresh start - a chance to put recent troubles and nightmarish events behind her. But after a tense reunion, their carriage runs into a mob gathered to witness the mass murderer Mary Ann Cotton being brought into Durham Jail. Buried memories of Clara's second tragic miscarriage begin to resurface, and her inability to recall events of the months leading up to her subsequent committal to a private asylum, cause her to question her husband's motives for placing her there. When Clara befriends Catherine, an outspoken Suffragist, she joins her as a prison visitor, working with female inmates. The childless Clara encounters Mrs. Cotton and becomes increasingly fascinated with her story and when she learns the murderer is pregnant the obsession grows. As she uncovers more details about the murders, she's tormented by the idea that a mother could poison her own children. A disturbing encounter finally unlocks the truth behind the terrible events surrounding her miscarriage, but when her husband falls under the controlling influence of a devious colleague, Clara is soon fighting for her sanity, her freedom and her grandmother's inheritance. Meanwhile public outrage grows about Mrs. Cotton, a woman who would go against her God-given instincts and murder her own children and several husbands by poisoning, a 'woman's choice' of weapon. Newspaper articles about "the monster" incite fresh debate about the natural place of women in the latter decades of the 19th century while Clara struggles to save her fortune, her freedom and her life.