Review: The Mystery Woman by Belinda Alexandra

 

After a salacious scandal in Sydney, Rebecca Wood flees to a small coastal town in the hope of starting a new, inconspicuous life where her past can’t catch up with her. She is taking on the role of postmistress, and on her first day on the job she is disconcerted to learn that the prior postmistress committed suicide – in the very office where she is now to work. The circumstances and events leading to that suicide are very upsetting, and Rebecca finds it difficult to put it from her mind. Before long, other dark and disturbing events become known to Rebecca, and she starts to wonder if there is something more sinister in the underbelly of the town she was hoping to lead a quiet life in.

I love stories about small towns, and the secrets, lies and whispered histories within them. Right from the start of The Mystery Woman, we start to get to know the strange and interesting characters in the small town of Shipwreck Bay – some endearing, some abhorrent, and everything in between. I can’t get the image of George Pike with his piranha face out of my head!

I admired how the theme of politics – both national and small-town – were weaved through the narrative and played a large role in the flow of the story, without being the major storyline. The town of Shipwreck Bay is a whaling and mining town, with its locals generally relying on the income of the whaling trade to survive. There is one lonely inhabitant of the town who is completely opposed to whaling, and is detested and disparaged by the rest of the township for it. This brought forward some thoroughly interesting history and background on whaling in Australia, a topic I knew very little about. It’s difficult to read of the brutality these majestic creatures were put through, and I am immensely glad to know that this is no longer a common practice in Australia – although it’s distressing to think there are parts of the world that haven’t yet outlawed this trade.

The imagery of the ferocity and unyielding power of the ocean, and the life that is within it, was stunning. Rebecca’s fear of the sea from an earlier tragedy in her life was visceral, and I thought the writing about her fear and regret was quite beautiful.

I was struck while reading this the difference in how people appear to be and who they really are – Rebecca’s internal monologue is an example of this, as well as multiple other characters. How well can we really know a person, and how much can we trust who they portray themselves to be?

With themes of malicious gossip, the fear of rejection from society, domestic violence and the way women were unfairly judged on their morality, set against a post-war era in the Australian gothic style, this was certainly a departure from Belinda Alexandra’s usual fare of sweeping historical fictions – and I think she nailed it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and although I had a suspicion some of the way through of how it would conclude, I was absolutely flying through the second half to see how it would all be tied up.

Thank you Harper Collins Australia for sending me a copy of this book to read and review – The Mystery Woman is out on September 2^nd.

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