Review: The Whisperer's War

Title: The Whisperer's War

Author: Jackie French

Publisher: 5th March 2025 by Harlequin Australia

Pages: 450 pages

Genre: | Historical Fiction | Romance | WW2

Synopsis:

Why does humanity cling to warfare when it destroys the land and people the armies try to claim?

Claverton Castle, 1940. Eagles and Spitfires fly in the skies of England as Lady Deanna, the aristocratic granddaughter of the Duke of Claverton, spends her days shovelling manure and her evenings in blue satin, attending dinner parties to gather intelligence from the many Nazi sympathisers among Britain's powerful upper classes. She is an excellent spy: the information she gleans may prove vital in the months ahead. But when she becomes enmeshed in the German plot to restore the Duke of Windsor to the throne of England and ensure an alliance with Hitler, she must feign cooperation and risk her life for the sake of her country.

As war devastates Europe, 'Lady Dee' must solve other mysteries, too. Why do the three orphaned children she has taken into her home and grown to love refuse to reveal their identity? What reason can British Intelligence have to warn her away from Sam Murray, a decorated Australian pilot and the only man she feels she could ever marry? Is the wounded soldier who stumbles along the secret caves below her home truly the missing Duke of Claverton?

From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the conflicts between love and duty, and the royal betrayals kept secret from the public for so long.

My Thoughts

Jackie French has done it again with an outstanding her story, ‘The Whisperer's War’.   This book is a blend of fact and fiction with Jackie having researched some incredible and unbelievable facts especially related to the English Royals during WWII. Lady Deanna, or Dee, is an English aristocrat and she makes for an outstanding female lead. The tale revolves around aristocrats, Royalty, orphaned children, soldiers, spies and village living during Germany’s attempt to invade England. Jackie has undertaken extensive research with the inclusion of many actual events that have been documented at the time. 

‘… even those only vaguely fascist before the war to whisper that England should forge an alliance now, before Hitler finally crossed the Channel. How long before those murmurs became demands?’

Each chapter begins with a recipe of the time or WWII jokes that provide a different insight into the social and cultural attitudes of the day. This book really has it all with themes ranging from race and religion, to politics and prejudices; from clandestine plots and secret agent activities, to love and romance, all in perfect synchronicity. It highlights the daily life of the English dealing with wartime rationing, the shortage of luxuries and the fear of bombings. From the English countryside, to the streets of war torn London. Incredibly the reader then finds themselves in outback Australia with a whole other set of discriminating circumstances.  The Whisperer’s War is highly entertaining historical fiction that I found very hard to put down. 

‘There was no eternal safety, not for humans or for eagles, even now that her family was free of the world of whispers.‘

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Sea Captain's Wife

Title: The Sea Captain's Wife

Author: Jackie French

Publisher: 6th March 2024 by Harlequin Australian, HQ & Mira

Pages: 480 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

From bestselling author Jackie French comes a compelling story of murder, mystery, and mutiny on the high seas - and a love so intense it can overcome two different cultures.

You never know what the sea will give you ... or what it will take back.

When Mair McCrae follows her island tradition and hunts for a husband cast up on the beach, she has no notion that the naked, half-drowned man she rescues is not just Captain Michael Dawson, heir to a major shipping firm, but that he's obsessed by a 'ghost ship' carrying golden cargo.

On Big Henry Island women make the decisions and knit the patterns that mark a man as their own. But Big Henry is also a volcano, and threatening to erupt. Yet when Mair agrees to accompany Michael home, she finds that the Australian comfort he promised has a danger just as a social system that tries to keep women confined to small roles at the edges of men's lives.

And as Michael hunts for the 'Ghost' in his revolutionary new steamship, a string of mysterious deaths upends Mair's new life in Sydney.

Who is the murderer, and why is Mair the only one who realises what is happening?

My Thoughts

With a Jackie French book readers are always guaranteed an engaging story. This story is so unique detailing a community of women living on a remote island that is also home to a volcano. This self sufficient group of women work well together being very resourceful. Few men live on the island - excepting those who perhaps have washed ashore from a shipwreck. The main character, Mair, discovers one such man and this is their story. Of course they fall in love, however, where the story really takes off is when Mair agrees to accompany him back to Sydney. 

‘Mair was the perfect wife for a sea captain, he told himself, carefully forgetting in his peace and pleasure that she knew little beyond this island, that she would find his world as strange as he found this’

Here readers will discover how Mair struggles to adjust to Sydney society with the running of the family shipping company (both of which the reader must give some leeway at her quick adaptation given her sheltered existence). Add to the story a ghost ship filled with gold, a volcano that erupts, murder and mystery and this book quickly escalates to become a great tale. Jackie draws excellent contrasts in the two ways of living Mair has been exposed to and the role of women. The ghost ship and mysterious deaths just provide an added bonus being the proverbial icing on top. 

‘The most important criterion for a sea captain's wife was a woman who was used to waiting in a household of women for her husband's ship to sail to harbour.’

The Sea Captain’s Wife is another excellent book for lovers of historical fiction as it is really quite unique with its societal contrasting observations. Jackie really is a master of cleverly combining a great tale from the past with strong female characters who invariably are seeking to uncover a mystery. 

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This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: Becoming Mrs Mulberry

Title: Becoming Mrs Mulberry

Author: Jackie French

Publisher: 8th March 2023 by HQ Fiction Aus

Pages: 495 pages

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them.

The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.

A chance visit to a circus brings about a mystery in the form of a fairylike child whose guardians claim was brought up by dingoes. The child cannot speak and seems deformed. But Agnes is inexplicably drawn to her and believes she can be cured.

The decision to save the child will bring Agnes's lost fiance into her life again, as well as awaken the love of her husband who finds his voice as the three try to solve the mystery of the 'dingo girl'.

Agnes has put aside her own life and the dreams she once had. But now she has choices, with the main question the hardest: Who is Mrs Agnes Mulberry?

My Thoughts

Australian author Jackie French has written a fantastic piece of historical fiction in her latest work, Becoming Mrs Mulberry. Set in the 1920s, it is a story that touches on many heart wrenching themes as a consequence of WWI. There are many entertaining characters and several plot lines that make for a highly engaging read. 

‘The whole four years of being Mrs Mulberry seemed to be rising in rebellion. She had never wanted anything of the Mrs Mulberry life …’

Firstly, Jackie presents the lasting repercussions of those who experienced WWI and their attempts to re-enter society. The physical and psychological impacts both men and women suffered from and how they struggled to cope not only in adjusting to society but also how society treated them in many ways like freaks. So sad. The community that was established in this book was wonderful with Douglas Mulberry’s tale is deeply moving.

‘Everyone here has learned to be kind, thought Agnes, an island of compassion to each other in a world that would, at best, turn its face away.’

Branching off from this is also the realistic portrayal of the life for a woman of intelligence. Jackie presents the real struggles faced by Agnes in everything from fashion, to her role in a marriage, to wishing for so much more such as becoming a doctor. I also found the love triangle between Agnes, Huw and Douglas to be portrayed as a sensitive, mature and truly moving depiction of the situation. Finally there is the tale of Diane/Dingo girl - rescued from a circus and suffers from physical and psychological problems. Who is this girl? Was she raised by dingos? Can she fill a void for Agnes and Douglas and help bring them together? 

“Agnes, I d-didn't realise ….”

“That I am totally unsuitable to be a Mrs Mulberry?”

Jackie French brings to life the Australian bush with this strong cast of characters who form such a supportive community. Exploring the impact of war from a personal, family and community level with the plight of many often seen as outcasts. Agnes is such a strong and endearing female lead who readers are sure to cheer for through all her doubts, dreams and final destiny. Lovers of historical fiction must not miss out on this truly encapsulating and inspiring tale. 

‘It was time to cast off the rags of her previous life and enjoy some of the privileges that came with being Mrs Mulberry.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: No Hearts of Gold

Title: No Hearts of Gold 

Author: Jackie French

Publisher: 1st December 2021 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 407 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: women’s fiction, historical fiction

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO BE LOVED,

SOME ARE BORN TO BE USEFUL,

AND SOME ARE BORN TO BE BAD ...

Indulged and wealthy Kat Fitzhubert is sold in an arranged marriage to a colony across the world. Lady Viola Montefiore is the dark-skinned changeling of a ducal family, kept hidden and then shipped away. Titania Boot is as broad as a carthorse, and as useful.

On the long sea voyage from their homeland of England, these three women are fast bonded in an unlikely friendship. In the turmoil of 1850s Australia - which has reinvented itself from convict colony to a land of gold rushes and illusive riches - one woman forges a business empire, while another turns to illegal brewery, working alongside a bushranger as the valleys around her are destroyed. The third vanishes on her wedding day, in a scandal that will intrigue and mystify Sydney's polite society and beyond.

In this magnificent and broad-sweeping saga, award-winning author Jackie French defies the myth of colonial women as merely wives, servants, petty thieves or whores. Instead, in this masterful storyteller's hands, these three women will be arbiters of a destiny far richer than the bewitching glitter and lure of gold.

My Thoughts

She was suffocating in this room and under that small sky. Surely, in a land as large as Australia, one might rid oneself of any husband who was too repressive, or even one who loved as immoderately as Papa had loved.

No Hearts of Gold, is a wonderful new story from Jackie French about three very different women who forge new lives for themselves in colonial New South Wales. Jackie is Australian royalty when it comes to writing and her historical fiction works are outstanding. 

Yet Viola had discovered that smiling at the world also came at a cost. When you smiled at people and met their eyes you noticed the most fleeting of their expressions - the shadowed eyes despite cheerful faces, envy, fear or loneliness. Smiling was one of the coins you paid for love, but it meant you paid in other ways, for when you smiled you learned to care.

The three leading protagonists -  Kat, Viola and Titania - are very different yet come together to make a new life in a new land. It is their friendship and what each of them brings from their past, that provides the support needed to survive in this new colony. What Jackie does best is give a voice to the women from Australia’s past and through her meticulous research invites her readers to walk with the women on a most compelling journey. 

No Hearts of Gold is superb reading and testimony once again just as to why Jackie French is so revered as a writer when it comes to Australian historical dramas. 

It was a way of linking the joy-filled girl that she had been with the fulfilled 

woman she was now. She smiled and lifted the teapot and filled the cups again with 

the smooth liquid which was not only tea. Some girls were not born to be good.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.