Moonlight and the pearler's daughter

Review by Booklist Review

Men who go down to the sea in ships do not always return. Such is the case of Charles Brightwell, who has fled poverty in London with his wife and children to follow his brother to Western Australia, where untold riches await him as a master pearler. But when Brightwell's ship pulls into port without him after a pearl harvest, his daughter, Eliza, refuses to accept his disappearance. Perhaps an accident has left him adrift in the violent ocean? Could he have been murdered by an Aboriginal crew member? Or is there another reason for his absence, one that alludes to the corruption and blackmail rife throughout Bannin Bay? The social values of the late-nineteenth century make it nearly impossible for a woman to try to solve such mysteries on her own, but Eliza has experienced too many losses in her young life to accept another. With the spirited Eliza at its heart, Pook's evocative debut novel spins a tale of intrigue and deception with a deft combination of gripping pacing and emotional restraint. Travel writer and journalist Pook's heightened observational skills are well employed in this lavish tableau showcasing Australia's vast and exotic natural treasures and fraught history.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In Pook's lush debut, a young woman investigates her father's disappearance in late-19th-century western Australia. After Charles Brightwell goes missing from his pearler ship, his 20-year-old headstrong daughter, Eliza, who has already lost her mother and younger brother, refuses to believe he's dead. When she learns that Balarri, Charles's right-hand man, has been arrested on suspicion of murder, she launches her own investigation. A diary left behind by Charles provides helpful clues that lead Eliza through dangerous areas dominated by the criminal Brotherhood of the Waning Moon and cutthroat business rivals. Eliza receives assistance from Axel Kramer, an attractive German entrepreneur, and a local priest who lends Eliza and Axel his boat so they can resume the search on the small islands that dot the western coast. This final, most dangerous leg of Eliza's journey tests her physical endurance, bravery, and faith in the belief she can save her father. Though the revelations about Charles's disappearance feel a bit lackluster after all the adventure, the author offers plenty of sensory details and satisfying character development for Eliza. Overall, Pook casts an intoxicating spell. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (June)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT Beautifully evocative prose describing landscape and people intertwine in this bittersweet story of love, family, and courage. 1886. Bannin Bay, western Australia. It is the end of the pearling season and Eliza Brightwell looks forward to having her father and brother back on shore. But when meeting their lugger, only her brother appears, sharing the horrifying news that their father has disappeared. Convinced that he is still alive, Eliza begins an exhaustive investigation that takes her from the back alleys of Bannin Bay to the outlying islands. Along the way, she will discover secrets that powerful individuals would rather keep hidden and some which may prove ruinous to her family. The small cast of characters, each wonderfully fleshed out, and Eliza's quest are what propel the story. Alongside the characters, it is place that is the book's focus: the ocean and the land complement and enhance Eliza's investigation. VERDICT Readers will delight in the descriptive language that the author employs, so much so that they themselves will hear the sea and feel the desiccation of the heat and loneliness of the land.--Laura Hiatt

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Set in 19th-century Western Australia at the height of the pearl trade, this book paints a nuanced portrait of the era as the backdrop for a feminist epic. In her debut novel, Pook introduces us to Eliza Brightwell, a pearler's daughter living in the fictional Bannin Bay of Western Australia. Eliza stands out from the other women of Bannin Bay because of both her plain looks and her independent personality. 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. Eliza's early days in Bannin Bay were marked by tragedy with the deaths of her mother and younger brother, and 10 years later, when her father's pearl-diving boat returns from months at sea without him, Eliza refuses to accept his loss as well. She will stop at nothing to find her father, dead or alive. Her quest draws the reader into the tense social climate between colonizers and Aboriginals, the spectacular flora and fauna of Western Australia and Pacifica, as well as the perils of sea voyages at the time. While the setting for this novel is particularly well developed, the characters often feel a bit flat, and there are many missed opportunities. Eliza's single-minded drive to save her family because of tragedy in her past feels familiar, and it doesn't allow Eliza's character to develop over the course of the book; her romantic relationship with a pearler named Axel barely registers. Pook sets up some intriguing female sidekicks--Eliza's childhood friend Min, who becomes a prostitute, and deckhand Knife, who disguises herself as a boy--but their stories are not fully explored. For all of Eliza's resourcefulness, gumption, and guilt, what's missing is a little vulnerability. A work of historical fiction whose setting somewhat outweighs its plot. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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ProloguePROLOGUE Bannin Bay, Western Australia, 1886 Eliza has never seen a land that looks so very much like blood. From the deck of the steamer it glistens, stretching wide in a lazy, sun-blurred smear. She raises a hand against the glare, taking to tiptoes to squint over the polished guard rail. Before her, red dirt jitters in the heat and the sea is a boisterous, blistering green. There is something unsettling about the weariness of the breeze, hot and filled with the mineral stench of seagrass. "We made it, my loves, we did it. Marvelous." Her father's oiled mustache lifts upward as he grins. He turns from his family to look out across the strange landscape--mirrored bays and shadowy crags the color of crushed insects. This journey will be what saves them. Father had told them so over mutton and gravy back home. He regaled them with tales of pearl shells first, their shining nacres of champagne, silver, and cream. He was to work with his brother to launch a fleet of luggers, hauling shell to sell in bulk to the Americans and the French. The world was already lapping up the spoils of Bannin Bay, turning mother-of-pearl into buttons and the prettiest pistol handles you ever did see. They'd watched, with jaws slack, as Father had pulled out his old atlas, folded down the page, and smoothed his palm across the place called New Holland. "Look." He showed them, trailing a finger down its western coast. "When we're there, we will be able to forget about all that has happened." The beach in front of Eliza flares white and harsh. Dunes, sharp with swaying saltbush, ripple far into the distance. Below the rail, gulls skirl around a jetty that unfurls like a crocodile's crooked tail into a long gut of mangroves. Her father gives the order and leads them steadily off the ship--her uncle Willem, her aunt Martha, followed closely by her mother and brother. Thomas is a head taller than her now, conspicuous in this heat in his short trousers and smart pressed jacket. Glancing back, she can see the hunched shoulders of stevedores. In grubby vests and moleskins to the knee, they lug what remains of the Brightwells' belongings out of the ship. Grasping at her mother's skirts, Eliza steps down onto the jetty. As she does, and with the speed of a knife over lard, her feet slide from beneath her and she thuds, backside first, onto the planks. The odor is obscene, but she places a flat palm on the greasy wood. There are fish scales smeared about and stringy meat going crisp in the sun. "Come, Eliza. Brush yourself off." Her mother extends a broad, comforting hand. Eliza rubs her elbows, smooths her skirts, and lets her mother tug her to her feet. The sun has scattered coins of light across the sea; they make her eyes swim with stars. Looking up, she finds the sky obscured by the crescent of her mother's silk hat, the brim so absurdly wide she has seen men cowering from it back home. How odd she seems against this strange new place, Eliza thinks, like a dragonfly, once resplendent, marooned in a bucket of old slop water. They continue down the jetty, her father and brother striding ahead. Sweat pools in the crooks of her elbows and at the creases behind her knees. Beside them, men watch unflinchingly as they pass, turning caulking mallets, hammers, and dirtied blades in rough hands. Her mother pays them no heed--an easy task for someone accustomed to admiration--and looks instead across the shoreline and out to the shot silk of the sea. "You see, my girl, it's beautiful." She smiles and kneels to the height of her daughter. Eliza hears the rush of liquid before it happens. Sees the movement at the corner of her eye but turns away a heartbeat too late. With a sigh it splashes across them--thick with chunks and foul smelling. It slides with grim slowness down Eliza's face. They turn together toward a man who has frozen in position, sun-grizzled as a raisin and with only a few gray teeth. He holds a barrelful of fish guts under an arm, and a cracked palm raised in surrender. "My apologies," he gasps, although a smile plays about his lips. "You ladies got right in the way. I beg your pardon." He stands aside to let them pass. "Please." Her mother gives a huff as she jerks her daughter sharply onward. Smearing the guts from her cheeks, Eliza turns to see the man remove his hat. She watches as he hawks a knot of phlegm from his throat, depositing it at his feet with a gluey string of spittle. Her mother quickens to an appalled trot, still pulling at Eliza's arm. The words barely reach her before they are snatched by the breeze. Four words she'll always remember. "Welcome to Bannin Bay," they say. Excerpted from Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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