By Kelly Bridgewater
A botanical illustration of a
butterfly, a missing baby, and a twisty mystery fifty years in the making.
1868, Morpeth. Theodora Breckenridge, still in mourning after the loss of her
parents and brother at sea, is more interested in working quietly on her art at
the family’s country estate than she is in finding a husband in Sydney society,
even if her elder sister Florence has other ideas. Theodora seeks to emulate
prestigious nature illustrators, the Scott sisters, who lived nearby. She
cannot believe her luck when she discovers a butterfly never before seen in
Australia. With the help of her maid Clarrie and her beautiful drawings,
Theodora is poised to make a scientific discovery that will put her name on the
map. Then Clarrie’s newborn son goes missing and everything changes.
1922, Sydney. When would-be journalist Verity Binks is sent an anonymous
parcel containing a spectacular butterfly costume along with an invitation to
the Sydney Artists Masquerade Ball the same day she loses her job at The Arrow, she is both baffled and determined to attend.
Her late grandfather, Sid, an esteemed newspaperman, would expect no less of
her. At the ball, she lands a juicy commission to write the history of the
Treadwell Foundation, an institution that supports disgraced young women and
their babies. As she begins to dig, her research quickly leads her to an
increasingly dark and complex mystery—a mystery fifty years in the making. Can
she solve it? And will anyone believe her if she does?
My Thoughts:
The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper is a unique story set in Australia. With a fifty year old mystery involving a missing baby and monarch butterflies, Cooper crafted a different story with a twist. I enjoyed the parts of the mystery when the heroine, Verity tried to piece together the pieces to figure out why the butterfly painting looked familiar. Even though the setting is unfamiliar to most American readers, Cooper makes the setting familiar, yet mystic at the same time. The characters are deeply developed with hurts and familiar lifestyles. Surprisingly, something so small as a butterfly could craft an entire story that shows the hurts and betrayals done by certain people that has a butterfly effect fifty years later in a different part of the continent. Overall, The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper was nice to read and captured my attention. Just like all the other Cooper stories that I have read, this one was nicely written and handled.
I received a complimentary copy of The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper from Harper Muse Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase The Butterfly Collector
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