The Palace of Lost Virtue (Anthea Hodgson, Penguin)

In The Palace of Lost Virtue, Anthea Hodgson follows her bestselling novel The War Nurses with a stirring work of historical fiction. Spanning 1898 to 1926, this new novel offers a vivid portrait of life on the Western Australian goldfields, against the backdrop of a true-crime murder mystery. Marigold Harrington, a Melbourne girl raised in the Christian faith and the Temperance movement, arrives in Kalgoorlie in search of her missing father. Virtually penniless, she is unprepared for the harsh realities of a gold-rush town where women rely on marriage for respectability. Through her meeting with Pansy Arlington, the madam of the Palace of Pleasure brothel, Marigold is exposed to a world shaped by violence, illness and the casual cruelty of men hardened by life on the diggings. Marigold’s association with Pansy sustains her as she experiences love, heartbreak and the cost of respectability. Hodgson illustrates the era’s hypocrisy and double standards, which made women’s lives difficult and dangerous. Marigold’s story is framed by 2 defining moments: her arrival on the goldfields in 1898 and the notorious 1926 trial of the men accused of killing Inspector Walsh and Sergeant Pitman – a case that came to symbolise the long-running conflict between gold-stealing gangs and police. Interweaving fact and fiction, Hodgson uses this crime to build momentum and provide a very satisfying twist. Fans of Pip Williams should enjoy this atmospheric novel.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Katy Briggs is a marketer with a degree in English and history. She is an avid reader across myriad genres. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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