Book Review - Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter

 

* Gifted in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours, for inviting me on this blog tour.

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook.

Synopsis:

Fortune favours the brave . . .

It is 1886 and the Brightwell family has sailed from England to make their new home in Western Australia. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them in Bannin Bay beyond stories of shimmering pearls and shells the size of soup plates – the very things her father has promised will make their fortune. Ten years later, as the pearling ships return after months at sea, Eliza waits impatiently for her father to return with them. When his lugger finally arrives however, Charles Brightwell, master pearler, is declared missing. Whispers from the townsfolk point to mutiny or murder, but Eliza knows her father and, convinced there is more to the story, sets out to uncover the truth. She soon learns that in a town teeming with corruption, prejudice and blackmail, answers can cost more than pearls, and must decide just how much she is willing to pay, and how far she is willing to go, to find them. A gloriously rich and wonderfully assured debut, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is set in a mesmerising yet unforgiving land, where both profit and peril lie deep beneath the ocean’s surface; rendered with astonishing clarity, it is a novel that marks Lizzie Pook as a name to watch.

My review:

Lizzie Pook’s excellent debut novel begins in 1886, in fictional Bannin Bay, Australia. The geography is modelled on parts of the north-west Kimberley coastline. The story's plot is inspired by Australia’s early pearling hubs. The latter half of the 19^th century isn’t a time period I am overly familiar with, so it made a nice change to read a novel about it. I felt like I came away from reading this book having learnt something.

The story begins with Eliza’s father bringing his family to Bannin Bay, hoping to make them money and give them a better life. Ten years later the story picks up again and he is now the town’s most successful pearl diver. Eliza eagerly awaits her father’s return from his latest pearling expedition, and when his boat and crew return to the bay, she is told by her brother that he has gone. Eliza knows that the man arrested, an Aboriginal man, couldn’t have committed the crime, and she decides to solve the mystery herself. Using her father’s journal as a starting point and two new friends, she sets off on a dangerous hunt for the truth. There is also a dark family tragedy running alongside the main storyline.

Lizzie Pook has a very descriptive writing style, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt fully immersed in the plot; I could imagine the extreme heat and smell of the bay. I loved Eliza, she was such a strong character, I warmed to her straight away. She was brave, determined and so different from how a woman was expected to act in the 19^th century. All the characters are very well written and have such depth.

The author explores a lot of topics in this book such as the exploitation, slavery, racism, and brutality committed by of some of the settlers against the indigenous communities and the dangerous, corrupt world of pearl hunting. I really enjoyed reading the Historical and Cultural note at the end of the book which explained this further. I was so engrossed in this novel that it didn’t take long for me to finish it. Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is a highly memorable book which I want to recommend to everyone!

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter is out now! Buy your copy here.

Author bio:

Lizzie Pook is an award-winning journalist and travel writer contributing to The Sunday Times, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Condé Nast Traveller and more. Her assignments have taken her to some of the most remote parts of the planet, from the uninhabited east coast of Greenland in search of roaming polar bears, to the foothills of the Himalayas to track endangered snow leopards. She was inspired to write Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, her debut novel, after spending time in north-western Australia researching the dangerous and fascinating pearl-diving industry. She lives in London. You can find Lizzie on Twitter and Instagram: @LizziePook

Check out the rest of the tour: