Book review: Murder on North Terrace
Journalist turned author Lainie Anderson’s latest novel offers a charming and deeply researched historical mystery that elevates Australia’s forgotten policewomen and the hidden labour beneath Adelaide’s genteel façade.
Author Laine Anderson’s second Petticoat Police Mystery is far more than a page-turning cosy crime novel; it’s a deeply researched historical fiction that unearths the unacknowledged labour of women and the social support network they created during WW1-era Adelaide. By pairing a high-profile murder with a quieter but no less disturbing case of sexual assault, Anderson cleverly uses these crimes to explore the inequality rife within Adelaide’s civic institutions and broader society during these fraught years.
The novel opens with the discovery of a body inside the South Australian Art Gallery. The victim has been placed beneath a controversial painting, Sowing New Seed, an expensive and contentious purchase that has both the guardians of public decency and the public in an uproar. This murder is as much a cultural shock as it is a forensic mystery, escalating the moral scandal surrounding the Art Gallery into something far more sinister than mere outrage at daring to hang a nude.
The case initially gives Woman Police Constable Ethel Bromley a longed-for glimpse of the life of a detective, while her family’s wealth and social standing grants her access and insight when dealing with the murder suspects – a roll call of Adelaide’s elite.
With her protégé seconded to the detective branch, Woman Police Constable Kate Cocks finds herself stretched thin. Armed with her five-foot cane and a knack for using her strict, teetotalling demeanour to coerce men into better behaviour, Kate is almost at the point of exhaustion when she discovers a young girl who has been brutally assaulted in the Parklands.
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The narrative follows the two policewomen as they investigate these brutal crimes – the murder that hits the headlines and sends shockwaves through the upper echelons of Adelaide society, and the rape that barely makes a ripple. It is this contrast between the public visibility of the cases that becomes the spine of the novel. One case threatens the reputation of a public institution while the other threatens the reputation of a young girl. It’s no surprise which generates the most attention from the newspapers and the justice system.
Blending impressive historical research with narrative craft, Anderson reveals the realities of the women working in South Australia’s Women’s Police Branch, the first of its kind in the nation. Woman Police Constable Kate Cocks was a real person, whose job it was to both protect women and children and monitor morality within the city. Her offsider, Ethel Bromley is entirely fictional, and her more progressive and extroverted character serves as an engaging foil to her boss’s more strait-laced disposition. The pairing works, avoiding the sentimentality that can sometimes grant a saccharine flavour to the fictionalisation of trailblazers. Anderson brings both her protagonists to life as authentic characters, flawed and fascinating, whose contribution was crucial.
The research underpinning this book is extensive and particularly engaging for readers familiar with Adelaide and its inner suburbs. The historical details of North Terrace, King William Street and Victoria Square are visceral – the rattle of trams, the department stores and sticky-floored pubs, all encircled by the leafy wilderness of the Parklands. It’s a delightful experience to patrol Adelaide’s grid through this historic lens. But Anderson’s Georgian-era Adelaide is not just a decorative backdrop for the plot. She weaves a detailed social tapestry that depicts the preoccupations and concerns of a city struggling with the social, psychological and economic consequences of war.
The result is a historical crime novel that doubles as a correction to the way Adelaide and its female citizens were perceived during World War One. Cunningly wrapped within this cozy crime is a well-researched social and civic biography that restores women and their unseen labour to the historical narrative. Readers need not have read The Death of Dora Black to enjoy this book. Murder on North Terrace stands on its own as both a charming mystery and a compelling insight into the women who dedicated their lives to justice despite history’s lack of acknowledgment.
Murder on North Terrace by Lainie Anderson (Hachette) is out now