Review: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

 

Title: The Frozen River

Author: Ariel Lawhon

Published: 1st November 2023, Simon & Schuster

Status: Read December 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia

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“From the bestselling author of Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who investigates a shocking murder that unhinges her small community.

Maine, 1789: When a man is found entombed in the frozen Kennebec River, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth, death and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she has also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred by one of the town’s most esteemed gentlemen – the same man who has now been found dead in the ice. 

While certain townspeople are eager to put both matters to rest, Martha suspects that the two crimes are linked, and that there is more to both cases than meets the eye. Over the course of one long, hard winter, whispers and prejudices mount, and Martha’s diary lands at the centre of the scandal, threatening to tear both her family and her community apart.   

In her newest offering, Ariel Lawhon brings to life a brave and compassionate unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice on behalf of those no one else would protect. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense and tender story of a remarkable woman who had the courage to take a stand, and in the process wrote herself into history.”

My Thoughts:

The Frozen River is an engrossing piece of historical fiction, with an engaging mystery, and inspiring lead character. An excellent read, highly recommended.

(More to come…)

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Review: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Title: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

Author: Lisa See

Published: 5th July 2023, Simon & Schuster

Status: Read September 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia

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My Thoughts:

“For much of my life I felt alone, but over the years a circle of women came to love me, and I came to love each of those women in return.”

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See is a splendid historical novel inspired by the life of a woman who lived in China during the Ming Dynasty.

Born into privilege, Yunxian’s Tan’s future is predetermined. She will be married off at fifteen to the advantage of her family, expected to bear her husband sons, and uphold the rules and traditions of her new home as befits a lady of status. When the novel opens, Yunxian is just eight years old, and her beloved mother, Respectful Lady, is dying. On her passing, Yunxian is sent to live with her paternal grandparents, where she is absorbed into their busy household. Unusually her Grandmother Ru is a practitioner of fuke – medicine for women, and she offers Yunxian the opportunity to learn from her.

“A thousand years in the past, a thousand years in the future—no matter where you live or how rich or poor you are—the four phases of a woman’s life are the same”

Guided by meticulous research, See sheds light on the lives of women in 15th century China as she leads us through Yunxian’s life, from her Milk (childhood) Days, through to her Hair-Pinning (marriage) Days, Rice and Salt (child-rearing) Days, and into her Sitting Quietly (post-menopause) days. No matter their status, women had very little agency over their lives, and See explores this in the novel by introducing wives and mothers, spinsters and concubines, peasants and servants.

“In our friendship—with all its twists and moments of tumult—was the yin and yang of life.”

For all her privilege, Yunxian’s world is severely confined, both figuratively, and literally given the cloistered living conditions and awful practice of footbinding. Working with her Grandmother however leads her to friendship with Meiling, the daughter of the family’s midwife. See explores the importance of this unusual bond over Yunxian’s lifetime, as well as the transformative nature of relationships she forms with other women.

“Oh, our feet may take different shapes and mark us by class, but we share breasts and the travails of the child palace. We are connected through blood and Blood.”

I learnt so much about the history of traditional Chinese medicine in Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. Adhering to Confucius principles and social mores, Doctors, who were almost exclusively male, treated women with an intermediary from behind a screen, never actually examining their patient. Yunxian eagerly learns medicine from her grandmother, though, with the naivety of privilege and youth, it takes her time to fully appreciate its value. I really enjoyed Yunxian maturing into her role as a doctor, and found the principles of diagnosis and treatment fascinating.

“You must speak if you wish to be heard.”

I found myself utterly absorbed in Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, Yunxian Tan is a compelling character and was obviously a remarkable woman. This is a rich, interesting, and engrossing story.

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Review: Prize Women by Caroline Lea

 

Title: Prize Women

Author: Caroline Lea

Published: 16th February 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy Penguin Books UK

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My Thoughts:

Upon his death in 1926, the will of Canadian lawyer, financier, and practical joker, Charles Vance Miller bequeathed the residue of his substantial estate to ‘the woman who could produce the most children within the next ten years’. Caroline Lea draws inspiration from what became known as The Great Stork Derby in her historical novel, Prize Women.

When an earthquake hits Chatsworth, New Brunswick, and it appears her abusive husband has been killed, Lily de Marco uses the opportunity to flee with her young son. Matteo. Arriving in Toronto, broke and homeless, Lily is fortuitously introduced to Mae Thebault, the wife of a wealthy steel factory owner, who agrees to let Lily stay with them in return for helping to take care of the Thebaults’ five children. Despite their differences in background and social status, Lily and Mae quickly become close friends but after the Wall Street Crash and the onset of the Great Depression, the two women unexpectedly find themselves rivals.

Exploring the lack of agency women too often had over their lives, particularly once tied to marriage and motherhood, the impact of the economic collapse, the desperation of poverty, as well as abuse, friendship, prejudice and racism, Prize Women paints a rich portrait of Canada’s social history over the 1920/30’s. The Author’s Note explains where Lea has diverged from historical accuracy for narrative purposes.

Curiosity about The Great Stork Derby is what drew me to this novel, and Lea explores its impact thoughtfully. With large family’s not exactly uncommon at the time, given the lack of contraception, I was surprised to learn the ‘baby race’ had only 11 entrants. Accounts suggest that most of them would have had large families even without the incentive of the competition, but I hadn’t given much thought to motive, or what ‘losing’ the ‘baby race’ might mean to participants.

The characters of Lily and Mae are loosely based on two of the real Derby competitors, and to them the money is of vital importance, though for very different reasons. Lea is sensitive to the women’s desires and hardships and portrays them with nuance. Lily is probably the more sympathetic of two, but Mae’s experience is also affecting. At the mercy of mens decisions in private and in public, both are afforded so little control over their lives it’s infuriating.

I found the pacing lagged a bit later in the story, in part I think because Prize Women is often quite bleak which weighs the narrative down, though the end brings light and hope.  A moving and interesting novel.

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Review: That Bligh Girl by Sue Williams

 

Title: That Bligh Girl

Author: Sue Williams

Published: 2nd May 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

In That Bligh Girl, Sue Williams blends historical fact with a fictionalised narrative to tell the story of Mary Bligh, the daughter of New South Wales fourth Governor.

The controversial role of Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) in Australia’s colonial history is well known. Appointed the 4th Governor of NSW in 1806, Bligh was ousted by a coup, known as the Rum Corps Rebellion led by grazier and officer John Macarthur, less than two years later. But few probably remember that while Bligh hid under a bed from the 300 armed soldiers who stormed Government House, his daughter, Mary Putland (née Bligh), who had reluctantly accompanied her father to Australia, stood bravely at the gates wielding only a parasol, indignantly refusing them entry.

Mary’s courageous stand may be mentioned in historical records, which tend to favour men, but generally only in the context of her father’s biography. In That Bligh Girl Williams draws on meticulous research to give Mary her own voice and place in history.

Bright, spirited, stubborn, and a little spoilt, Mary had been planning on making a home with her new husband, Lieutenant John Putland, in Ireland when her father imperiously announced the couple would be accompanying him to New South Wales, where Mary would serve as the Lady of Government House in her mother’s stead.

Williams’s novel, unfolding from the perspective of Mary, and her convict maid, Meg Hill, stretches from Mary’s arduous six month journey to Australia, past the events of the Rum Corps Rebellion, to her eventual death in Paris in 1864. It shares her complicated relationship with her father, the tragic death of John Putland, and her life with her second husband, who later also served as the (acting) governor of NSW. I enjoyed learning more about Mary and admired her fortitude.

The character of Meg is mostly based on one of Mary’s maids, Susannah Harrison, but is more properly an amalgamation of several. Meg’s perspective provides additional context to Mary and her life in NSW, as well as information about the experience of female convicts in the colony.

Well written and interesting, That Bligh Girl is an engaging historical novel about adversity, courage, friendship, and love.

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Review: The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson

 

Title: The War Nurses

Author: Anthea Hodgson

Published: 12th April 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy PenguinRandomHouse Australia

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My Thoughts:

Inspired by the experiences of Australian nurses, including the author’s great aunt, in Singapore during WWII, The War Nurses is a remarkable and moving story of courage, tragedy and friendship from Anthea Hodgson.

It’s 1941 when the Queen Mary sets sail carrying members of Australia’s armed forces overseas. Among them are volunteer enlisted nurses Margot, Beth, Lola, and Minnie, bunk mates who become friends on their journey. Stationed in Singapore, the women tend to the allied forces, proud to be of service, but they are forced to flee when the Japanese invade the island barely a year later. Herded onto the Vyner Brooke along with 60 other Australian nurses, over a hundred injured soldiers and dozens of expat evacuees, mostly women and children, the ship attempts an escape only to be strafed with bombs in the Bangka Strait.

The fate of Hodgson’s four heroines, and their fellow survivors, illuminate those of their real-life counterparts. Around 150 people survived the sinking of the ship and made their way to the closest shore clinging to rafts and debris. Tragically around fifty met their death on Radji Beach, among them 22 Australian nurses, at the hands of a party of Japanese soldiers, except for one lucky escapee. The rest of the survivors were captured, separated by gender, and then interned in camps until the war ended in 1945. Not all lived to be released.

I was already broadly familiar with the events on Bangka Island but the perspectives of the author’s characters create a sense of immersion in the ordeal. Written with genuine respect, compassion and empathy for the people on whom Hodgson’s characters are based, Margot, Beth, Lola, and Minnie are fully realised amalgamations. Hodgson relates how they endure their bleak circumstances with dignity, loyalty, wit, resourcefulness and determination.

As Hodgson later notes, many of the incidents in the story that seem unbelievable or exaggerated, are actually true. It’s a harrowing tale that brought me to tears more than once. That anyone survived, not just physically, seems almost a miracle. Yet the horror is tempered by warm and inspiring moments of friendship and support, small rebellions, and even a touch of romance.

A compelling novel, The War Nurses is a heartfelt and deserved tribute to the 65 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who died and survived the sinking of Vyner Brooke.

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Review: Homecoming by Kate Morton

 

Title: Homecoming

Author: Kate Morton

Published: 5th April 2023, Mariner Books

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Mariner/Edelweiss

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My Thoughts:

“Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ‘lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”

Homecoming is a captivating novel, the seventh from bestselling author Kate Morton.

When London-based journalist Jess Turner-Bridges learns the beloved, indomitable grandmother who raised her, Nora, has been hospitalised after a fall from the attic stairs, she returns home to Sydney after a twenty year absence. Jess is distressed to find Nora in a frail and confused state, and desperate to learn what precipitated the accident.

Jess is stunned when her search leads her to uncover a family tragedy that had been kept from her. Hidden beneath her grandmother’s pillow is a true crime book, titled ‘As If They Were Asleep’, that documents an investigation into the shocking deaths of Nora’s sister-in-law and four young children on Christmas Eve some sixty years earlier in the small South Australian town of Tambilla.

While the narrative shifts back and forth in time, it does so in a unique way. In the present much of the story is related through Jess, and occasionally her estranged mother, Polly, while the events of past unfold from several perspectives, and through excerpts from the book, as Jess reads it.

Impressively, Morton sustains the intriguing mystery of what really happened to the Turner family at ‘Haylcon’ until the very end, slowly teasing out the secrets, deceptions and betrayals that reverberate among three generations. I was genuinely surprised by several of the plot reveals, and though Homecoming is a fairly hefty length it’s well paced.

The meaning of home is one of the central themes Morton explores in her story, along with motherhood, family, and identity. Nora, Polly and Jess are complex characters, whose lives, and relationships with each other, are each shaped by the events in Tambilla in both direct and indirect ways. The author also touches on the issue of mental health, and the joys of literature.

With vivid description and evocative prose, Morton brings her settings to life. I felt as if I could find my way around Darling House, on the cliff-edged of one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, Vaucluse, where Nora raised both Polly, and Jess; and through the grounds and rooms of the grand stone hall of ‘Halcyon’ in rural Tambilla where the Turner family lived.

An enthralling and atmospheric tale, beautifully told, Homecoming is a stellar read, I recommend.

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Review: No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby

 

Title: No Life for a Lady

Author: Hannah Dolby

Published: 2nd March 2023, Aria

Status: Read March 2023 courtesy Aria/Penguin

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My Thoughts:

No Life for a Lady is light-hearted, cosy historical mystery with a touch of romance from Hannah Dolby.

‘There are ladies who don’t like what they are made for, the cleaning and the domestic business, the caring and the mothering. We might think badly of them for it, but it does happen.’

Violet Hamilton would prefer a profession to a husband, at twenty-seven she continues to fend off the latter, much to her father’s disapproval, but is yet to find the former. In part this state of affairs stems from the sudden disappearance of her mother in 1886 when she was eighteen, and as the ten year anniversary approaches, Violet is determined to find out what happened to her.

Discretely hiring a private detective is the first step but there is something about Frank Knight and his interest in her mother that Violet finds disturbing. An advertisement discovered by chance leads her to an another private eye, and though Benjamin Blackthorn initially turns her down, Violet eventually convinces him to help.

Violet is a likeable lead character. She chafes at society’s expectations but with the naivety of a well-raised lady. This means she is caught unawares more than once, but to her credit she is rarely discouraged and persists regardless.

There are several amusing scenes, including Violet’s efforts to turn away unwanted suitors, discretely tail a gentleman with her chaperone in tow, and a picnic with unexpected nature views. I also enjoyed the banter between Violet and Benjamin. Their low key romance is a sweet feature of the novel.

The mystery surrounding Violet’s mother’s disappearance plays out well, though I felt there were some small issues with the plotting, and the pacing was a little even. I enjoyed the reveal of the villain, and the drama of the conclusion.

No Life For a Lady is an engaging read with the potential to become a series.

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Review: A Woman’s Work by Victoria Purman

 

Title: A Woman’s Work

Author: Victoria Purman

Published: 5th April 2023, HQ Fiction

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Harlequin HarperCollins Australia

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My Thoughts:

A rich portrait of motherhood, societal expectations and self determination set in post WWII Australia, A Woman’s Work is an engaging novel from best selling author Victoria Purman.

Launched in 1933, offering feature articles on lifestyle, home decoration, cooking, fashion and beauty, parenthood, health and wellbeing, and current affairs as well as serialised stories, advice columns, and various competitions, by the 1950’s the Australian Women’s Weekly was the nation’s most popular household magazine. In A Woman’s Work, a competition run by the periodical searching for original recipes sparks unexpected but welcome change for Purman’s two main characters.

War widow Ivy Quinn is not much of a cook, dinner for her and her twelve year old son, Raymond, is usually no more complicated than eggs and baked beans on toast after her long days as a receptionist in a doctor’s surgery. The generous prize money offered by the Women’s Weekly competition provides an incentive for Ivy to improve her skills in the kitchen, and leads to a surprising new relationship.

Cooking meals for her family is simply another draining daily chore for exhausted wife and mother of five, Kathleen O’Grady. She appreciates that her husband, a mechanic, works hard to support them, but she increasingly resents his indifference to her own needs. Though initially reluctant to enter the Women’s Weekly competition, Kathleen discovers the task could be a gateway to reclaiming her forgotten hopes and dreams.

A Woman’s Work compassionately explores the constrained social expectations of women, and men, in mid 20th century Australia. It’s a realistic reminder as to how recently traditional gender roles were strictly enforced, and how little agency mothers in particular had over their lives.

Having raised my own large family I strongly empathised with Kathleen and her mixed feelings of love, resentment, and guilt as she struggles with the personal sacrifices she feels pressured to make to be perceived as the ‘ideal’ wife and mother. Ivy’s concerns about how she is seen as a working single mother, and her worries about her son’s masculinity, are saddening. Both characters are well realised and their journey’s are heartening.

Purman also touches on a number of provocative issues in A Woman’s Work including rape, domestic violence, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion. Though change has been wrought over time, the legacy of shame and fear still lingers today.

The era and setting of A Woman’s Work is deftly recreated. Recipes of the time drawn from actual entries to the competition preface several chapters. I did a little reading about the history of the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine (which is now a monthly periodical) and found it interesting, particularly with regards to how individual editors over time influenced the content of the magazine and therefore contributed to society’s attitudes about the role of women.

An engaging historical novel, I enjoyed reading A Woman’s Work and I am left thankful for the strides we have made since.

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Review: The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams

 

Title: The Bookbinder of Jericho

Author: Pip Williams

Published: 28th March 2023, Affirm Press

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy Better Reading Australia

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My Thoughts:

“Your job is to bind books, not read them…”

Pip Williams blends history with imagination, weaving a captivating, poignant tale of desire, duty, grief and love in The Bookbinder of Jericho, a companion novel to her award winning fiction debut, The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set within the bindery of the Oxford University Clarendon Press, we are introduced to Peggy, who, wielding her late mother’s bonefolder, gathers and folds the pages of books she dreams of studying at University, but as a Town, with the added responsibility of her vulnerable twin sister, Maude, such ambition has always seemed impossible. Then World War I breaks out, heralding change that seems to bring the future Peggy wants within her grasp, but war always calls for sacrifice.

Told in five parts, beginning in 1914 and ending in 1918, The Bookbinder of Jericho is well grounded in historical fact, exploring the gatekeeping of education and knowledge, womens suffrage, the horrors of war, post traumatic stress, and the devastating spread of Spanish Flu. It’s also a thought provoking and emotional story, rendering longing, romance, heartache, and loss with sincerity.

Peggy is a complex central figure, intelligent and dutiful but prickly, her resentment of all she is denied, by her gender, her social status, and her responsibilities, is never far from the surface. Though they are identical in looks, Maude’s contented nature and simple needs contrasts sharply with that of her twin. The supporting characters, including family friend Tilda (who appeared in The Dictionary of Lost Words), and Belgian refugees Lotte and Bastiaan, are well drawn and enrich the story.

Evocative prose effortlessly conjures movement and place. I found it easy to visualise the sisters crowded narrowboat lined with books and manuscripts, the balletic grace of the bindery women sweeping pages into their arms, the intimidating architecture of Oxford University, and Maude carefully folding her array of colourful paper stars.

The Bookbinder of Jericho is a rich, lyrical, beautifully crafted novel, I won’t hesitate to recommend.

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Review: Just Murdered by Katherine Kovacic

 

Title: Just Murdered {Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries #1}

Author: Katherine Kovacic

Published: 10th January, Poisoned Pen Press

Status: Read January courtesy Poisoned Pen Press/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

 

A screen to book adaption by Katherine Kovacic of the first episode of the Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries television series (written by Deb Cox and created by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger), which itself was inspired by Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, the TV series, which is based on the Phryne Fisher mystery books by Kerry Greenwood, Just Murdered is a delightful murder mystery set during the 1960’s in Victoria Australia introducing Ms Peregrine Fisher, the niece of Miss Phryne Fisher.

“She had never been one to play by the rules—at least, not unless they suited her.”

When Peregrine Fisher discovers an oft forwarded letter addressed to her late mother that requests a meeting with regards to an inheritance, her first instinct is to dismiss it as a joke, but at a loose end, having been fired that same day from her position in a hairdressing salon, Peregrine decides to accept the invitation. Upon her rather dramatic arrival at The Adventuresses’ Club of the Antipodes, Peregrine is informed that her mother’s estranged half sister, Phryne Fisher, is missing in Papua New Guinea, presumed dead, and Peregrine is her heir.

“I’ve tried hard all my life to be someone or belong somewhere…”

The murder of a young model at Blair’s Emporium, for which one of the Adventuresses is under suspicion, is just the opportunity Peregrine needs to prove herself to The Adventuresses’ Club of the Antipodes. She has big shoes to fill but it’s soon evident that though Peregrine may lack the sophistication of her aunt, she is just as bold, clever and resourceful. A genuine delight, I love her sassy attitude. Much like her aunt Peregrine refuses to be told who she is and what she is capable of, especially by men.

“Now I just have to convince Birdie and the rest of the Adventuresses that I can do my aunt’s old job. I mean, it’s not really that hard, is it?”

I enjoyed the well plotted mystery for which there several suspects. Another murder increases the stakes, especially for Peregrine, who then goes undercover to expose to the truth, despite being forcefully warned off by Chief Inspector Sparrow and Detective James Steed of Central Police.

The writing is a great reflection of the television episode, and I thought Kovacic translated the characters and events well to the page. She captures the entertaining balance of humour and tension that is the appeal of this series. The settings are well rendered, and the sense of time and place are distinct.

I expect fans of the original Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries will enjoy this spin off as I have. You can stream Seasons 1 and 2 of Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries on Acorn TV in several countries, but I would welcome continuing print instalments of this series.

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