3.5 Stars
This is the first book I’ve read by this Canadian author and I came away impressed by this historical fiction which alternates between two timelines.
In 1961, Emily Radcliffe is an editorial assistant with Chatelaine magazine. In order to investigate rumors of horrific conditions in the Mercer Women’s Prison, Emily goes undercover. She has her father tell a judge that Emily is uninterested in marriage, disregards curfew, and has no respect for authority so is in need of reform. This claim is sufficient to get her sent to the prison for six months. What she uncovers, she is certain will launch her career as a journalist.
In 1996, unidentified female remains are discovered in an unmarked grave in a small-town cemetery. Detective Rachel Mackenzie is tasked with unraveling the mystery. Her investigation leads to the now-shuttered Mercer Women’s Prison. At the same time Rachel is still dealing with the trauma of a family tragedy, details of which are slowly revealed through flashbacks to the 1980s.
A major question throughout is how the two stories will connect. Is the body that of one of the women in the prison during Emily’s time there? Rachel’s backstory, on the other hand, feels unnecessary. Her complicated and difficult relationship with her mother I found a distraction. Yes, it does touch on mental health issues, but there’s sufficient examination of that topic without this addition.
I appreciate how much research the author did for this novel. As explained by the lengthy Author’s Note at the end, the characters are based on real people. I enjoyed the portrayal of Doris Anderson, the long-time editor of Chatelaine, a magazine my mother read faithfully all her life. And the deplorable prison conditions depicted in the novel are based on actual conditions uncovered in the Andrew Mercer Reformatory.
I want historical fiction to enlighten me and that is certainly the case here. In particular, I learned about the Female Refuges Act, an oppressive law that made it easy to institutionalize women for subjective misbehaviour. Prostitution or pregnancy outside marriage were offenses but a parent could bring before a judge any female under 25 who was deemed unmanageable or incorrigible.
What is emphasized is the lack of women’s rights. Women had few choices; what was expected is that they conform to society’s expectations. The author notes that the prison was intended to reform women: “to instill the valued feminine virtues of the era – namely subjugation and docility – in the name of reform.”
I did have some issues with characterization. One character, Dr. Eris Stone, is almost a cartoon villain because she has no redeeming qualities. And then there’s Emily who is too naive. She is convinced that she will be given a 3-month sentence and that she’ll be able to cause a public uproar with her story. Even after all she’s heard and her own experiences with Dr. Stone, it never occurs to her that she could jeopardize her release by confronting the doctor? I understand that her naivety propels the plot and creates suspense, but it’s as if her time in prison has had no effect on her. Emily acknowledges being “green and naive and bursting at the seams with idealism” but it’s a bit late.
Sometimes the novel feels somewhat heavy-handed in its development of theme. For example, “Women who came from broken homes and poverty, who were ill in the mind or body. She could see now how those things limited a person’s opportunities, dictated the direction of her life as they forced her down paths that were rockier, darker and more dangerous than the ones Emily had been allowed to traverse” and “society always calls a woman crazy when she knows she is right about something, or when, like the ill-fated Cassandra of lore, she sees something the others cannot – or will not.” I prefer less telling and more showing; there should be no need to tell the reader what is already made obvious by events.
Despite some weaknesses, this book is a worthwhile read. It sheds light on women’s rights (or lack thereof) in the 1960s, on the conditions in reformatories, and on the treatment (or lack thereof) of mental illness.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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