The Butterfly Collector is a dual timeline novel set in and around Sydney, Australia, in 1868 and 1922.

Verity: 1922

In the 1922 timeline, aspiring journalist Verity Binks has just lost her job at a Sydney newspaper so her job can be given to an unemployed returned serviceman. (A big hurrah to “traditional values” where it was acceptable – even required – to fire a single woman and a widowed mother with no other source of income, simply so their jobs could be given to men … Yes, I understand the men also needed jobs, but so did Verity.)

However, Verity’s editor does say she can still write for the newspaper, and he will pay for any stories he prints. That, combined with an unexpected invitation to the Sydney Artist’s Ball, pushes Verity into researching a story that takes her back to Morpeth, where her father was born.

Theodore and Clarrie: 1868

The 1868 timeline starts in Morpeth, and follows botanical artist and butterfly collector Theodora Breckenridge, general maid Clarrie, and her beau Sid Binks. We quickly work out that Clarrie and Sid are Verity’s grandparents, but it takes longer to work out the link between Verity and Theodora.

Clarrie loses her job when her employer, the local vicar, finds out she’s expecting and not married (something he could have easily fixed if he’d agreed to Clarrie’s request to marry her and Sid, but why let common sense get in the way of bluster and hypocrisy?).

Sid does some research and find that Clarrie can stay with Maud, a local midwife, for her lying-in, and Maud will then look after the baby while Clarrie works. It sounds like a good arrangement, especially as Sid has heard ugly rumours about babies disappearing when placed with other women in the town.

The Butterfly Collector is a fascinating story with lots of links between present and past that get unraveled as the story progresses. It’s clever plotting, and well-written. I loved the way Tea Cooper has captured the character voices in both time periods.

The writing is unpretentious yet fresh, and the book was an engaging read.

Tea Cooper doesn’t specifically write for the Christian market, but several of her recent novels have been republished in the USA by Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. I only noticed one instance of swearing in The Butterfly Collector, and the rest of the content was consistent with other novels from Thomas Nelson or other traditional Christian publishers (allowing for the fact the plot features an unmarried mother and is about illegal activities).

Recommended for fans of Australian historical fiction or books like Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate or The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma.

Thanks to HQ Fiction and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Tea Cooper

Tea is an award winning Australian author of  historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling. She is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Horse Thief, The Cedar Cutter, The Currency Lass, The Naturalist’s Daughter, The Woman in the Green Dress and The Girl in the Painting.

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About The Butterfly Collector

What connects a botanical illustration of a butterfly with a missing baby and an enigma fifty years in the making? A twisty historical mystery from a bestselling Australian author.

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 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, so she cannot believe her luck when she discovers a butterfly never before sighted in Australia. With the help of Clarrie, her maid, and her beautiful illustrations, she is poised to make a natural science discovery that will put her name on the map. Then Clarrie’s new-born son goes missing and everything changes.

1922 Sydney 

When would-be correspondent Verity Binks is sent an anonymous parcel containing a spectacular butterfly costume and an invitation to the Sydney Artists Masquerade Ball on the same day she loses her job at The Arrow, she is both baffled and determined to go. 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. But as she begins to dig, her investigation 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?

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