It often pays not to read the blurb of a novel - can't help thinking something that's based in the "fascinating world of Victorian funeral customs and featuring Sydney's first female undertaker", may not scream read me to your average crime fiction reader. If there is such a thing.
Historical fiction author Deborah Challinor has created firstly a brilliant character in Tatty (Tatiana) Caldwell, and secondly a fascinating scenario which is packed with lively dialogue, a great supporting cast, and a clever and quite subtle plot with a central idea that's particularly unusual.
Tatty had an idyllic childhood in London, the only child of doting parents, who die in quick succession, leaving her destitute and heartbroken. Her parent's also had unusual backgrounds, and if there was one thing she learnt from both of them, it's that a woman can and should be independently and financially secure. So at 17 she leaves behind her dear friends and companions in her parent's home and emigrates to Sydney, which, in 1864, is a far cry from London, but starting to develop into a city of services and structure.
Her first job, as an undertaker's assistant with Crowe Funeral Services, sees her eventually married to the profoundly awful Titus Crowe, who, not long after dies, leaving Tatty to inherit the business and become Sydney's only female undertaker. Who is then left to fight off a rival, who accuses her of poisoning her husband, leading to Tatty having to fight dirty in response. The battle between the potential of a murder charge, and the search for something to use against her rival, sees her undertake some particularly gruesome, and quite risky activities.
Absolutely riveting, BLACK SILK AND SYMPATHY has a lot of good strings to its bow. Firstly Tatty is a wonderful character, full of determination and absolute grit, she's also always been able to surround herself with good people who she looks after. Each and every "reveal" in this novel is done in a wonderfully low key sort of a way, allowing the reader plenty of "well of course" type moments, to say nothing of the chance to really cheer on a woman who is standing up for herself in a world run by some very substandard men. Not to say it's all yeah the women / boo the men. The men who work with her, and support her, are a great bunch, and I must admit I loved the touches of animal kindness and concern exhibited by them. Plus, just for a change, it's the men dealing with romantic ups and downs, whilst the women press on with the unsavoury bits of the job.
In the author's note at the back of the book Challinor outlines the extensive research she did for this novel, all of which really did illustrate how much of a masterclass BLACK SILK AND SYMPATHY was in not letting the research get in the way of an engaging story.
Whilst this review might be making this novel sound a bit like a feminist treatise, it's really not. It's a clever, subtle and most enjoyable novel that has, at its heart, a young person who is forging a path ahead, despite the vested interests working against them.
Black Silk and Sympathy
A dazzling new series from bestselling historical fiction author Deborah Challinor, exploring the fascinating world of Victorian funeral customs and featuring Sydney's first female undertaker. Tatiana Caldwell's childhood in London is idyllic and filled with the love of doting parents. But when they die in quick succession, she's left heartbroken and destitute, and at seventeen emigrates to Sydney in 1864, determined to build a new, financially secure life for herself.
After an apprenticeship as an undertaker's assistant with Crowe Funeral Services, Tatty marries owner Titus Crowe. Titus himself soon dies and Tatty inherits the business and becomes Sydney's only female undertaker.
But then rival funeral director Elias Nuttall, intent on acquiring Crowe Funeral Services, publicly accuses Tatty of deliberately poisoning Titus. She must find a way to stop him before he ruins her, and embarks on exposing Nuttall's own gruesome secrets, a mission that takes her from the cemetery at midnight, to house-breaking, to Sydney's criminal court, to the lunatic asylum.
Black Silk and Sympathy is a riveting and realistic story of Sydney in the 1860s, of death laid out in front rooms, of funeral processions and mortuary trains, and of survival, reinvention and determination.
Add comment