Member Review

‘She thrusts the paper, marked with an official admiralty stamp, towards the gap. ‘I’m Maude Horton,’ she says. ‘My sister was Constance Horton, and what I need is the truth.’

My thanks to Pan Macmillan Picador for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge’ by Lizzie Pook.

Having enjoyed Lizzie Pook’s debut novel, ‘Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter’, I was delighted to read her second book that again focused on the sea. This is a work of historical fiction inspired by the real life expeditions into the Arctic during the mid-19th Century.

London, 1850. Maude Horton and her grandfather, an apothecary, meet the returning HMS Makepeace following its journey to the Arctic to seek the lost Franklin expedition. Her younger sister, Constance, had tricked her way onto the ship disguised as a cabin boy named Jack Aldridge. They are shocked to learn that ‘Jack’ had met with a tragic accident - a misadventure - and her body left behind. Maude is convinced that something isn’t right.

Francis Heart, a clerk at the Admiralty, requests a meeting with her. He reveals that sinister forces are involved and requests that she discreetly follow Edison Stowe, a man he believes is connected to the coverup/conspiracy. In return for her help, Heart gives her the journal that Constance/Jack had kept recording her experiences. From this Maude learns of her sister’s life on board. Maude’s apothecary skills may well come in useful in her quest to exact revenge for her sister’s death. No further details to avoid spoilers.

The novel moves between Maude’s point of view and Constance’s account as well as that of Edison Stowe, who on return to Britain has started a macabre touring business for the wealthy to attend public hangings across the country. It certainly demonstrates that True Crime has been a fascination for a long time.

I was impressed with the degree of research that clearly went into the creation of this novel. Aside from evoking the streets of Victorian London and the characters’ travels throughout the country, Constance’s journal creates a powerful sense of the trials and tribulations of the Arctic sea voyage. This was very evocative.

I appreciated the author’s closing Historical Notes that provided information about the lost Franklin expedition and the various recovery attempts undertaken (the wreckage of the ships were not actually located until 2014-16). There was also information about the growing popularity of Madame Tussaud’s during this period.

Overall, I found ‘Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge’ an engaging work of historical fiction.