What would it take to befriend someone the whole world has written off?
Marigold Harrington arrives on the Western Australian goldfields in 1898 ready to save souls. She’s a prospector’s daughter, a committed member of the Christian Women’s Temperance Union, and she is absolutely certain she knows right from wrong. Then she meets Pansy Arlington – a former Kentucky prostitute who runs the Palace of Pleasure and has built herself a small empire from the wreckage of her past. When Marigold offers forgiveness, Pansy offers kindness back, and nothing is quite the same again.
From the moment I started reading, I was completely pulled in. Hodgson creates such a vivid, alive world – the goldfields are rough and dangerous and glittering all at once, and the two women at the centre of this story feel utterly real. I loved both of them immediately, even when they frustrated me, which is exactly how you want to feel about characters in a book like this.
What really got me was the friendship. It shouldn’t work as these two women come from completely different worlds but Hodgson makes it feel entirely believable and genuinely moving. There’s real warmth and humour between Marigold and Pansy but also honesty about how hard it is to truly trust someone when survival has taught you not to.
And then the story takes a darker turn and I genuinely didn’t see it coming. Inspired by true events from the gold rush era, The Palace of Lost Virtue builds to something shocking and emotionally devastating. I finished it in two sittings and immediately wanted to talk to someone about it.
If you love atmospheric Australian historical fiction with unforgettable women at its heart, put this one straight to the top of your list. You won’t regret it.
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