An absorbing story of old Bristol at the height of its slave trade, and a young woman who is astute. As she watches young boys around her murdered, she is concerned enough to pry. The story is immersive, you feel the fog, the dirt, mud and misery of being poor and being dependent on those with money. ( )

As this engaging story opens, fourteen-year-old Coronation (Corrie) Amesbury is a passenger in a stagecoach; following the relatively recent deaths of her brother and her father, and a fire which completely destroyed her home, she is travelling from her home in Wiltshire to the 18th century slave-port of Bristol. Seeking to “better herself”, she plans to stay briefly with her married elder sister whilst she attempts to find a domestic “situation” in one of the many affluent households in the city. Whilst listening to a conversation between her fellow passengers, she hears a disturbing story about six young boys from the city who have been found with their throats slit; their murders being blamed on Red John, a travelling man whom few have actually seen. Knowing how it feels to lose a brother, Corrie feels an immediate concern, not only for these unknown boys but also for their grieving families. It is this empathy which will drive her to seek justice for the boys but, in a city which places little value on the lives of the less fortunate, her determination to uncover the truth behind the killings exposes her to considerable danger.
I found this an enjoyable, fast-paced story, one which immediately transported me to the busy, thriving port of Bristol, a city which was at the centre of the slave trade during the early years of the eighteenth century. As well as very effectively capturing the various sounds, smells and sights which greeted Corrie as she explored her new landscape, the author’s descriptions provided insights into the various levels on which that society functioned. They portrayed the vast rift between the very rich and the desperately poor, capturing the comfortable lives of the affluent merchants, who were exporting cargoes of precious metals, weapons etc to Africa, in exchange for return cargoes of sugar, tobacco and slaves and exposing the bargaining, and the skulduggery, which frequently went on between merchants as fortunes were made and lost. The storytelling also highlighted the dreadful conditions experienced by the poorest in the community, those who faced the daily struggle to accommodate, feed and adequately clothe themselves.
It also exposed the inhumanity of the slave trade and the thoughtless, almost casual brutality with which the slaves were treated, even those such as Abraham, the young boy “adopted” as a pageboy by merchant’s wife Mrs Tufnell. A desperately unhappy and resentful child, he was subjected to the unpredictable moods of his mistress: dressed in expensive clothes, he was sometimes petted and shown off, but then, just as casually, beaten if he did the slightest thing to displease her. However, the story highlighted that brutality was not confined to the way in which black slaves were treated, but that it existed in marital relationships, as well as in how employers treated their workers.
Corrie’s eventual employment as lady’s maid to this woman enabled the author to very evocatively explore the “upstairs/downstairs” aspects of life in the household, a microcosm of the society outside its doors. Through Corrie’s acquaintanceship with Aaron Espinosa, a fellow-passenger from the stagecoach, the author reminds the reader that anti-Semitism is not a relatively modern phenomenon, but was rife in the eighteenth century, with Jews being seen as easy scapegoats for many of the “ills” of society.
With her endless scheming, eavesdropping and spying, I found Corrie to be a very likeable protagonist, even though there were times when I had to suspend my disbelief about some of some of the freedoms she enjoyed to pursue her investigations, and the number of times she was able to avoid serious harm from all the bawds, thieves and rakes she encountered! However, I must admit that my growing enjoyment of her feisty attitude to life, her self-confidence, and her determination to expose dishonesty and injustice wherever she found it, did make it relatively easy for me to rein in my more sceptical reactions!
The author’s skill in creating such a multi-layered character was not limited to her protagonist, she also brought it to bear on all her supporting characters. Most of these felt nuanced rather than stereotypical and none felt superfluous to the developing story. Through Corrie’s relationships with all these characters she built up a psychologically convincing portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of the world she was living in and trying to negotiate her way through. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plotting, some of which were surprising, and thought that the author managed to maintain the tension in a way which kept me engaged throughout this fast-moving story.
Kat Armstrong has a doctorate in eighteenth-century fiction and I’m sure that her familiarity with this period helped to lend such convincing authenticity to her characters, their attire and habits of speech, as well as to the ways in which she conveyed a powerful sense of place. Historical fiction is a genre I often struggle with because all too often it doesn’t feel convincing, but on this occasion I think the author got it right and I found myself hoping that she might be considering making this the first book in a series!
With its wide-ranging variety of interesting themes this would make an interesting choice for reading groups.

With many thanks to Yvonne Barlow at Hookline Books for a pre-publication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )