Bennett set his novel in a northern English town. He has written what is not only a historical novel, but one based loosely on a real person, John Brigge, a coroner who performed inquisitions in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Bennett did, however, change the time in which he set the novel because as he states at the end of his book: "that when conflicts arise between historical facts and the demands of the novel we tend to settle them in favour of the latter. This is a work of fiction."

Bennett's tale begins with Brigge being called in from his farm outside of the town to look into an apparent infanticide. The accused is an Irish woman, who refuses to speak. Her guilt seems automatically presumed because she is Irish and from out of town. This bothers the coroner. John Brigge keeps his Catholicism hidden and he appears to have succeeded in keeping the trust of his fellow town councilors. But not all is as it seems, and soon Brigge's world begins to unravel as he seeks to see justice done, and at the same time tries to protect his family. Brigge believes he has an ally in an old friend. The honest coroner believes in loyalty even as that friend warns him to change his ways. And while Brigge is surprised by his friend's sudden rise to power within the community, he fails to sense danger. He fails to ask himself if in times like these, can a man trust anyone?

Bennett knows how to draw the reader into that time when religious intolerance and superstition created a very uncertain world. But most of all, he is a master in capturing the slow unraveling of a prosperous household, a happy family life, and a once highly respected position. In some ways, this book achieves what Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale fails to accomplish, namely a believable scenario that allows the reader to understand how religious hysteria and the fear of an unknown enemy can change a society very quickly. Bennett also manages to make a reader believe the underlying hypocrisies and corruptions, which are the inevitable results when those in power refuse to obey the rule of law. There is no doubt in a reader's mind that this has happened and that it can happen again, unlike Atwood's book about religious extremism in a period sometime in the future, which can be seen for what it is, an anti-American diatribe that succumbs to hysteria.

Havoc in its third Year is a mystery novel, a historical novel, a novel about love and redemption. Its ending, although it is sad, is beautifully rendered.