Murder and survival in colonial Melbourne

Madeleine Cleary ‘Butterfly Women’ Anne Layton-Bennett brings colonial Melbourne to life with a riveting tale of murder, resistance and women who refuse to be forgotten, writes Anne Layton-Bennett.

INITIALLY THIS NOVEL SEEMED TO BE A Jack the RipperIt’s a detective story set in colonial Melbourne in the 1860s. Although it is certainly a murder mystery involving a serial killer, the book also covers the social history of the period, although it focuses on women’s stories rather than men’s.

Learning and researching some of his ancestors was what led to this idea. Madeleine Cleary‘s first novel, Butterfly Women. Several of his ancestors once lived in the city’s run-down red-light district, formerly known as Little Lon, which was bulldozed in the 1940s. Johanna, one of the protagonists of the story, is loosely based on her great-great-great-grandmother.

History books often focus on the lives of men, but it was the lives of women that fascinated Cleary and how they managed to survive while their men were away, either in the gold mines, in prison or dead. Women’s precarious lives were often those of slavery, and the only other option for the mostly unskilled and illiterate women in Little Lon was prostitution.

If they were lucky, young people could become “dressed girls” who lived and worked in the relative safety of brothels – at least until their appearance faded and they were deemed too old or their services were no longer in demand. At that point, it was up to the streets to walk the streets or resort to riskier work, such as petty crime, to keep a roof over their heads and put food into their children’s mouths.

To tell the story of these “butterfly women,” Cleary drew on documented accounts of women, mostly from Ireland and England, to create all her female characters. Each played a role in uncovering the identity of the serial killer, whose victims, like the infamous Jack, were prostitutes. These include the exotic and flamboyant Madame Laurent, owner and madam of the brothel Papillon, where Johanna is eventually transformed into a “dressed girl” and left for dead following a shocking and brutal attack by her former employer.

Then there’s Mary Jenkins, who dons her police officer husband’s uniform to patrol the streets of Little Lon and keep him from losing his job when he’s too drunk to work. Since this was a frequent occurrence, Mary became a known and respected figure, even to the authorities who chose to ignore the fact that there was a woman in a man’s role.

And then there’s Harriett, an aspiring journalist who has just arrived from England with her two overprotective brothers and whose investigative journalistic ambitions are rejected as an unsuitable profession for a woman. Therefore, his reporting was limited to writing small articles on the newspaper’s social pages.

But despite their different backgrounds and social statuses, the murders bonded them together as they joined forces and used their skills, abilities and intelligence to find the identity of the killer.

Each woman symbolized the butterfly persona, a popular emblem at the time that Cleary used to represent the lives of all women who struggled to transcend the social conventions of the time and escape the restrictions imposed on them by men.

For lovers of historical crime set in Melbourne’s early colonial days, this is an engaging and satisfying read. As the body count increases, so does the pace and tension. For the sharp-eyed, there are clues to identifying the killer, but I found the social aspects of life in a city still evolving and also finding its own identity just as interesting as discovering who did it.

In the 1860s many people left Ireland, Scotland and England for good, perhaps for not-so-good or even bad reasons. For better or worse, they probably all came to Australia hoping for a better life, but whatever their social status or at most they were facing a precarious, hand-to-mouth existence. They were all just trying to survive, but the sense of friendship and community was strong, and never stronger than among the women.

Those who lived in Little Lon were a close-knit community where women looked out for and supported each other. And they also caught the murderer who was determined to silence them.

Madeleine Cleary’s Butterfly Women is published Simon and Schuster.

This book was reviewed by an IA Book Club member. If you want to buy free get high quality books and your review It was published On IA, subscribe to receive your email free IA Book Club membership.