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

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One need read no farther than the first sentence to know this will be a deliciously descriptive book, and the beautiful writing is backed up by a mystery and an adventure unlike any I have read before. At the train station where Jews are being jammed into cattle cars bound for Auschwitz, Udo gives Nico a yellow star to wear and persuades him to whisper among the crowd, “I heard it from a German officer. 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.

Set in Western Australia during the late 1800s, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is Eliza’s story. Palmer doesn’t listen but, in any case, the young man soon escapes from the jail and melts back into the unforgiving landscape. When Eliza's father doesn't come back from the last pearling expedition and her brother can't tell her what happened to him, she is determined to find him. Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here.

Lizzie Pook's rich and evocative prose captures the heat, the wildlife and the industry of this pearling town, transporting the reader back in time. Lizzie Pook's exquisite prose tugged me in and held me in the eye of the storm, my fingers tightly crossed for Eliza. 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. The era, the location and the culture would indicate that she should "behave" in a rather more seemly fashion than she does! I just wish there was more than one of those instances but honestly it’s just me nitpicking right now).

This suspenseful story has a fast-pace and smooth-flow, bringing a strong female character who faces prejudice and corruption, while trying to uncover disappearance of a successful pearler. Lizzie Pook’s novel about a young woman in the 19th-century outback, “Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter,” examines the perils — moral, physical and otherwise — of the pearling industry. It was an unexpected pleasure to be transported into another world as a young woman stands up to threats from man and nature in this debut novel. In that city, Nico Krispis is an 11-year-old Jewish boy whose blue eyes and blond hair deceive, but whose words do not.There can be conflict, the president of the Pearlers’ Association warns the Brightwells, between the bay’s “Europeans, Malays, Manilamen, Koepangers, countless Japanese. Another firm fave was Laura-Min (a childhood friend of Eliza’s) who’s one of the most supportive people Eliza knows and whose resilience and survival despite the racism and misogyny she endures made me really root for her to find happiness. An appealing heroine, it’s a little unlikely Eliza would be quite as capable as she seems to be in a couple of scenes for a young woman of her status during the time period, but her determination and daring is admirable. But “Moonlight” is a sensitive and compassionate book, admirable in its engaging synthesis of multiple strands of history.

When the ship finally sails in near dusk, its flag fluttering at half-mast, Eliza is told her beloved father disappeared overboard sometime during the previous night and is presumed dead. And of course, I really liked Eliza, our headstrong, feminist protagonist who’s willing to go to any lengths to help the ones she cares for most. This is billed as a feminist adventure story in that the main character is Eliza Brightwell who is a pearler’s daughter. The best part of the novel, for me, was Pook’s ability to make the reader feel the inequities brought on by the colonizers to the original Aboriginal people. 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.

If this is her writing style, than the editors need to reign her in and they also need to re-classify where her books belong. 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.