This book had me in its grip form start to finish - there was so much going on right from the beginning: the woman who tricked her way on board, the murder, the relationships between the women, the relationships between the women and the matron (who was the most in-matronly matron I could have EVER imagined!), and the relationship between the matron and the ships captain.

The dialogue between the women seemed authentic to me. These convicts came from all parts of the British Isles: London, the West Country, Scotland, Ireland. What connected them though, was their crimes all appeared to be the result of their sex and poverty. They were all working class women who had acted out of desperation, and it was really interesting to hear their stories.

I know this is a work of fiction, but the Rajah did exist, as does the quilt that the women were working on. The quilt is now on display in the National Gallery of Australia. I googled it - it’s beautiful. How anyone could have produced it whilst on a ship in the ocean, I have no idea 🤢

The conditions on board must have been appalling. At the start, the Matron instructs the women to scrub their quarters, but they would have been cramped, their toilet was below decks (buckets), and seasickness along with poor food would have made quite some heady aroma! They may have been convicts, but I was impressed by their stoicism in these circumstances.

I felt that I learnt an awful lot whilst reading this, as well as being thoroughly entertained - it’s a fabulous book!

I always enjoy a book which makes me turn to Google to explore more of the context and stories, and this was no exception. This story is woven skillfully and is fascinating; it also visits parts of history that haven't always been told in patriarchal history and explores the complex story of the Rajah quilt.

The dual narrative is written in such a way that makes it easy to follow - something not every author can do confidently whilst maintaining the sense of 'order' for a reader. Tracking Hattie in the 'then' part of the story signposts where you are, which is helpful.

I liked this story but did feel it could have had had more context, more depth to the stories of the women taken up from British prisons on their journey to Australia. I was left wondering what the real-life descendants of these women made of the story.

Overall a great story, well-told, which prompted me to explore further the fascinating story it represented.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Michael Joseph UK, and the author Hope Adams.
I enjoyed this story, it was involving and the fact it was based on a true story makes it all the more interesting.
I was a little disappointed by the ending, and there were a few loose threads, but otherwise a good read.

Like Adèle Geras, who as Hope Adams wrote ‘Dangerous Women’, I saw the Rajah quilt at an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2009. What a fascinating piece of history, and what a twisty fictional story Geras has written using the quilt as inspiration.
‘Dangerous Women’ is set in 1841 aboard the transport ship Rajah as it sails from Woolwich, England bearing 180 female convicts to Van Dieman’s Land [today’s Tasmania]. What a fascinating piece of history this is. Geras takes the true story of the ship – some of her characters are real, including matron Kezia Hayter – and tells a tale of troubled, sometimes wronged and abused women, confined together on a ship for three months. Miss Hayter is the only free woman on board and, at the behest of the British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners, organises a team of 18 women who can sew. Every day they stitch patchwork, creating the now famous quilt, but also stitching together the truth of their own lives, their crimes and hopes for a new beginning in a strange country. Miss Hayter is a young well-meaning woman, perhaps naïve, but with a strong belief in what is right.
The story of the voyage is told through three viewpoints – Miss Hayter and two prisoners, Hattie Matthews and Clara Shaw – and at two points on the timeline of the voyage, ‘Then’ and ‘Now’. The alternating passages of each women are quite short, telling chunks of back story. These slipped by too quickly and I would have welcomed longer sections. There were also so many peripheral characters that I got them mixed up, a female love triangle and various women with torrid pasts and mental health issues.
We learn early on that Clara should not be on board and is masquerading as someone else. She has been violent in the past, so should we believe anything she says? This matters because ‘Dangerous Women’ is not just a glimpse of history, it is also a murder mystery. And this is where I ran into difficulties. When one of the women is stabbed on deck, Miss Hayter is appointed to the on-board committee, also including the captain, doctor and minister, to solve the mystery and find the attacker. The number of female convicts plus the sailors means the list of potential criminals is long and the lack of strong characterisation meant I confused Marion with Joan, Becky with Rose… and some of the admittedly low-level tension was lost.
The pace is slow for a locked room murder mystery, despite the suggestive title. But ‘Dangerous Women’ creates a snapshot of an unfamiliar piece of history; the standards on the ship, and the stories behind the convictions of many of the women, are startling. This is a gentle story about a brutal, difficult subject, told through the eyes of the gentle, well-meaning Miss Hayter.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Based on true facts. A ship that transported female convicts from London to Australia, where one is murdered during the voyage. I mean a pretty great place for a who-dunnit mystery.

Enjoyable and utterly gripping.

I struggled to get into this. I found myself zoning out while reading this. Part of me wishes this focused on either the womens journey or the murder mystery and not both. I felt like part of both stories got lost with it jumping between.
I found myself lost at times. But also just as I would become slightly interested in one side of the story it would flip to the other.

The characters were flat. I found it difficult to figure who was who as their voices all sounded the same. They were likable enough but thats it. Nothing special. Nothing to make any stand out.

The pacing was way too slow. I can enjoy a slow paced book if it has tension or atmosphere. Something to keep me invested. But this lacked both. There was no tension really. No fear that another murder could happen. It just dragged on.

In the end I may have finished the book but I didnt care about who did it or what happened. I just wanted it done with.

Emotional historical fiction story based on a true story. It was heartbreaking at times, well written and impressive plot & mystery.
It's a great debut.
Thanks a lot to NG nad the publisher for this copy.

This story is based on true events and tells of the women being shipped out on the Raja. They're on their way to Australia and have all committed a variety of crimes. Some have brought their children with them if there were no alternatives.

The story begins with a murder on the ship. All women are suspects and all women feel unsafe.

I found this story really compelling, I suspected everyone, I didn't know who to trust. We are introduced to several main characters including one which we know is using a different person's name, but who is she really??

This was emotional, tense and really eye-opening. It's amazing to think that this was based on real events. Brilliantly researched and written.

This book is based on a mosaic of the true stories of the thousands of women, almost all poor, who were convicted and transported to Australia and Tasmania from the late 1780's to the 1850s. In this book, the scene is set on the Rajah, setting sail from London in 1841 with a group of women. One of them is a killer and the stories of the women are interwoven during the voyage to give a sense of the desperate straits that led all of them to be forced to leave their country behind and seek a new life (which for many turned out to be better) in Australia. A well told yarn.

Not for me. I found it really hard to get into and therefore unfortunately I did not finish it either

1841, A convict transport ship, a group of women convicted of various crimes sail for a new life from London to Australia. Despite their backstories and trauma of their previous lives they form an unlikely bond during the journey. Due to the confines of being on board ship several of the women are encouraged by their mentor, Kezia Hayter to create a quilt using sewing skills to present to the governors wife as they disembark. Kezia herself, wishing for more than what is expected of women of her standing, to marry and procreate, is also fleeing England. Following ideas trialled by Elizabeth Fry she uses as the quilting as a method of reform.

A murder takes place on board and the culprit slowly comes to light. Loved the illustrative cover, story could have been a bit grittier.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers Michael Joseph for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

A historical murder mystery on board a ship that lacked strong individual character personalities.

In 1841, the Rajah sets off from London with 200 female prisoners on board. The aim of her voyage is to transport these convicts – all of whom have been arrested for thieving or other similar non-violent crimes - to Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen’s island) for rehabilitation. Whilst on board, the matron Kezia Hayter encourages a selection of the women to collaborate on sewing a patchwork quilt to pass the time. All appears to be going well and the women start to bond over their work until several days into their voyage, when one of the women Hattie is found stabbed and the assailant is nowhere to be seen. As Kezia and the ship’s captain attempt to elicit who committed the crime, fear spreads amongst the prisoners that amongst them is not a petty criminal but a violent maniac who may strike again.

Based on true historical events, Dangerous Women is an interesting blend of historical fiction and a thriller/murder mystery tale. Using a genuine voyage as inspiration added intrigue to the story, and the author has clearly done a significant amount of research into ship voyages during this time and does an excellent job of portraying the discomfort of life at sea. The portrayal of women during this time period was also very refreshingly done and reading the story you really feel for the convicts on board the ship, most of whom committed their ‘crimes’ in self-defence or out of desperation to feed their starving children. It was truly a man’s world back then, and the injustice and unfairness that the prisoners experienced when they were convicted is paralleled in the way they are treated by the male ship staff when Hattie is stabbed – in the eyes of the world, these women are already guilty. I enjoyed reading their interactions and their backstories were some of the most interesting parts of the book, as they really make the reader feel for these women.

The major thing that let this book down for me was that, despite a strong portrayal of women as a whole, there was a lack of specific personalities for most of the characters. Aside from Kezia and Clara (a prisoner who swapped herself for another woman in order to get on board the ship), few of the prisoners really stood out as individuals and I often got quite confused between all the different secondary characters when they were interacting and had to double-check who was who. I also didn’t really feel attached to any of the characters the way I would hope to in a story such as this, which meant I cared less about their fate as individuals – even Kezia was a little one dimensional. The captain of the ship, despite having an important role in the story, barely had a personality at all, and although I have subsequently learned that it was based on historical fact, the love story between him and Kezia was uninspiring. This was a real shame, as I enjoyed the plot of the story and its underlying themes and wanted to find myself caring about these women as individuals rather than just a representation of historical bias and sexism.

In conclusion, this was an enjoyable story based around an intriguing theme but needed stronger characterisation to really stand out to me. However, I did enjoy reading it and was fascinated by the true historical elements.

Daenerys

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

I really liked the sound of this book, a murder mystery style read set on a ship. An impossible murder. I blazed through the book and really enjoyed trying to figure out the second character (she changed her name when she boarded the ship).

Dangerous Women by Hope Adams
I cannot praise this novel highly enough. Written by Adele Geras, (Who published her first novel in 1976.) under the pseudonym of Hope Adams. It is a stunning story of women’s lives and the hardships they suffered in early Victorian England. It melds truth and fiction in a fascinating account of the journey of the ship The Rajah which sailed in 1841 carrying 180 women and children to Van Diemen’s Land or Tasmania as it is now known.
There are finely drawn portraits of these women and how they were drawn into the petty thievery which would result in their transportation. We know when the story opens that one of the people on board is not who she purports to be. Later there is a violent attack on one of the women and the captain, the matron the reverend and the doctor struggle to elicit the truth of the events which led to this terrible act.
Central to the story is the labour upon the patchwork quilt which Kezia Hayter, the matron, has planned for the women to work on during the course of their voyage. This quilt was indeed produced by these convicts and is now housed in the National Gallery of Australia. Adele Geras first saw this on display in London in 2009 and since that time had been planning and working on this amazing story.
It is a moving, poignant and powerful story of women’s lives and as such I will be recommending it wholeheartedly to all of my various book groups. I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the author, the publishers and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is definitely a 50/50 review for me.. a marmite book.

I was interested in the storyline (based on a true story) and felt compelled to read until the end but it didnt always hold my attention and I felt my mind wandering off quite often.

The premise was good and I liked the whole 'whodunnit' aspect of the story on board but it just never fully grasped my attention enough to really enjoy it.

In all honesty I found it heavy going and long winded a lot of the time and where as I normally like a story that holds two timelines, I dont fell that having two timelines so close together done this book any good.

Unfortunately too many peaks and troughs for my liking.

Thanks to netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the ARC.

This was a fantastic read. The claustrophobic atmosphere aboard the ship, the relationships between the women and their pasts interweaved within the ongoing murder investigation makes for a tense, intriguing read that's difficult to put down. The historic detail is fascinating and as it is based on a true story even more interesting in regards to what happened to women convicts and the conditions they lived in on their way to their new lives the other side of the world. I loved it.

This was a lovely book. It combined accurate social history with a compelling fictional mystery. The two worked extremely well together and I am not sure which I enjoyed more. I loved the tale of the women being transported to Australia. The characters were well drawn and interesting. A little stereotypical in places but not a bad thing. I enjoyed all the detail of the voyage, the production of the patchwork and the lives of the women. Highly recommend.

Dangerous Women is based on the true story of the convict ship the Rajah and the quilt the women made on the journey to Van Diemand’s Land.

Elizabeth Fry was one of my heroes as a teen after having worked on a school project about influential women in history. It is because of the Quaker group she formed (the British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners) and one of the improvements of offering prisoners’ useful tasks such as needlework, that the quilt exists. You can see the quilt on YouTube https://youtu.be/kGpet_WTDak

I was eager to see how Hope Adams wove the reality into fiction.

I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and their backgrounds. The convicted women were trying to make the best out of the lives they found themselves living - 1841 is a time in history when even the smallest misdemeanours were punishable by imprisonment. When you learn what their crimes were, you understand the gentleness and pace of the story. It’s also the foundation for the motivation for the crime on ship … and for the mistrust and the friendships that blossom.

The main theme for me was the bond that grew as the sewing group worked on the Rajah Quilt. I loved the analogy of the quilt – a symbol of the women, one person next to another, different people pushed together. A patchwork of souls.

I feel very fortunate to have learned about this important piece of history which the author has brought beautifully to life.

This is a gentle ‘whodunnit.’ Secrets held close eventually become exposed and exonerated and we get to see the real people behind the façade.

Hope Adams takes the scraps that history deemed noteworthy about the real Convicts of the Ship Rajah and transforms them into a beautifully spun tale of friendship, fraud, sisterhood and suspicion. The novel plays with the power of preconceptions, whether you’re a high-born lady or have been convicted of petty crimes, as a woman the world will judge you on what it sees. Despite, or maybe because of, their crimes, the real women of the Rajan patchworked a stunning quilt, a treasured textile in Australian history, which you can read a bit more about here.

This book is another amazing example of a feminist lens being applied to a historical moment, with a full range of personalities and fleshed out female characters, all driving the plot forward. Kezia is the young matron of the convicts and is consistently subversive of norms ascribed to her gender, but remains satisfyingly and unapologetically feminine. Preferring to help those in need rather than marry, she agrees to escort the women to Van Dieman’s land where they are to begin their life afresh deciding that a daily dedication to patchwork or quilting will foster solidarity, confidence and peace of mind on their long and uncomfortable journey. She truly sees the convicts as victims of circumstance and hopes that newly free of their associations with criminal men, whether husbands or fathers, they will begin to believe themselves as new people before they arrive at their destination.

The action starts quickly as the book jumps between the lead-up and embarking on the voyage to the thick of the chaos when one of the needlewomen is stabbed on deck. The narrative pitches between perspectives and times, keeping the novel constantly interesting as the various narrator’s backstories are slowly revealed and the reader tries and to figure out who might be the culprit. An investigation ensues and Kezia finds herself belittled and talked over by the men of the ship, suddenly it’s more important than ever that she makes her voice heard about the women that she has come to know so well. Kezia certainly carries herself with a quiet strength against a very unforgiving and pompous clergyman and has you rooting for her every step of the way.

Overall, I loved the depth and breadth this novel allowed for the individual lives, personalities and traumas of the women on board. This does make it rife with trigger-warnings (which will be stated at the bottom of this review) but rich in emotions. There’s Sapphic representation, which disappointed me when it fell into a promiscuous stereotype, as well as representation of women of all ages. But mostly I thought the concept was deeply clever. As the women move towards their new life, they attempt to shed the preconceptions and judgements that are placed on them by society’s view of their criminal behaviour and vulgar mannerisms. At the same time, the author has the reader using their life stories and demeanour to discern who might be the culprit for the brutal stabbing, showing how truly powerless we to our strong social biases and preconceptions of criminality and morality unless of course, we keep them in constant check.

TW: rape, incest, miscarriage, sexual assault, baby death, self-harm, violence against women, murder.

Set in 1841, The Rajah sales for Tasmania with nearly 200 female convicts and their children, a new life beckons. Kezia Hayter joins the voyage to guide some of the women to make a special quilt as a way of occupying their tome aboard and learning a craft that will help them in the new world. Early in the voyage one of the women is murdered, the murderer is either one of the convicts or one of the crew. Kezia helps the captain and senior officers to seek the killer.

Hope Adams has constructed a compelling story based on some real events (the voyage and the quilt). The narrative slips between different characters weaving their histories together and delivers a very satisfying surprise at the end. I wasn’t sure about this at the beginning but I am glad that I read it.