From bestselling author Jackie French comes a compelling story of murder, mystery, and mutiny on the high seas – and a love so intense it can overcome two different cultures.
You never know what the sea will give you… or what it will take back.
When Mair McCrae follows her island tradition and hunts for a husband cast up on the beach, she has no notion that the naked, half-drowned man she rescues is not just Captain Michael Dawson, heir to a major shipping firm, but that he’s obsessed by a ‘ghost ship’ carrying golden cargo.
On Big Henry Island women make the decisions and knit the patterns that mark a man as their own. But Big Henry is also a volcano, and threatening to erupt. Yet when Mair agrees to accompany Michael home, she finds that the Australian comfort he promised has a danger just as real: a social system that tries to keep women confined to small roles at the edges of men’s lives.
And as Michael hunts for the ‘Ghost’ in his revolutionary new steamship, a string of mysterious deaths upends Mair’s new life in Sydney.
Who is the murderer, and why is Mair the only one who realises what is happening?
One of Australia’s best-loved and most prolific authors, Jackie French hardly needs an introduction. While she publishes widely across genres, from phenomenally successful children’s books to bestselling adult fiction, she is perhaps best known for her meticulously researched historical fiction – which is why her latest genre-defying novel is such a thrill!
In this latest offering, French puts aside some of her usual historicity to dive into a narrative based purely on speculative events – possibly for the first time ever, at least in her adult catalog. And of course, she pulls it off brilliantly!
The Sea Captain’s Wife boldly reimagines a Lord of the Flies-style remote island community as a near-utopia, predominately made up of women. A generous author’s note tells us this has been on French’s agenda since she was 15 years old, when she wrote a three-volume rebuttal to William Golding’s classic after studying it at school. While I’d love to glimpse that original work, I have a feeling that what French has delivered us is far more sophisticated, nuanced and deeply thought-provoking than that teenage seed of inspiration.
Despite stepping into the speculative realm, French highlights the real-world social attitudes of 1870s colonial Australia with acuity, particularly regarding gender roles and capitalist greed. While the story revolves around some brilliantly imaginative elements, it’s still grounded in French’s trademark rich, accurate, meticulously researched details. Cleverly, French uses the perspective of foreigner Mair to ensure that we fully experience the strangeness of the era’s accepted values. I particularly loved the insights into food, fashion, the shipping economy, and taboos around women’s bodies, intellect and sexuality in ‘genteel’ society.
And of course, French couches all this social critique in a rollicking plotline, complete with romance, murder, mystery and gold-chasing adventure. The world she’s created is utterly immersive.
Fans of French are in for a real treat. She only seems to get better with each new release, and I’m loving this creative turn! The characters are so fully formed that you’ll feel a loss when you’re through reading. Luckily for us, French rarely leaves us waiting long for her next offering. Until then, this inventive and thought-provoking read will leave you with plenty to mull over.
Leave a Reply