Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter: An Atmospheric Historical Mystery With a Courageous Heroine Intent on the Truth

Product Information

There were a couple of sections where it could've been tightened up a bit or fleshed out more, but overall I really enjoyed this one. It's dangerous and deadly work, less so for her father and brother, but very dangerous and deadly for those that work under them. When Eliza’s beloved father, the towns most successful pearler they have ever known, goes missing under more than just suspicious circumstances, the growing whispers and rumours start circulating and it’s not long before murder or mutiny echos off of everyone around Eliza. The setting, habits and manner of speech were all very well done and I could feel the 19th century climate.

A chance visit to the Maritime Museum in Fremantle led her to an exhibition about a family of British settlers involved in the early pearl diving industry. With the earlier timeline, I was hoping for character-development, pearling historical background – how it was first discovered and evolved into booming industry and then its decline. Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Aussie author Lizzie Pook is a historical fiction set in Western Australia in 1886. The story moves to 1896 and the focus of the story is Eliza’s effort to investigate the disappearance of her father.

As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background. The chapters are short and to the point with beautiful descriptions and nostalgic elements were necessary without being stretched out or overly detailed. She’s the sort to walk around town in battered boots rather than ride in a carriage like other ladies of her class, much to the disapprobation of the townsfolk.

stars: Author Lizzie Pook has written a beautifully atmospheric story of the perilous lives of pearl divers in Western Australia during the late 1800’s. While the setting for this novel is particularly well developed, the characters often feel a bit flat, and there are many missed opportunities. Events culminate in the revelation of family secrets that lead to Eliza sailing the Moonlight, Father McVeigh's lugger, with the German Axel Kramer and the aboriginal boy, Knife, as deckhand, facing storms, sharks and saltwater crocs, fearless in her determination to find her father.They land in 1886 on the blood-red sands of Bannin Bay, a fictional stand-in for Broome — and like the real town, simultaneously cosmopolitan and isolated, over a thousand miles from the region’s capital.