A Woman of Courage
Sunderland, 1890: fifteen-year-old Josie Gray, daughter of a work-shy father, supplements the family income by singing in a pub, where she attracts the attention of Adam McGuigan, youngest son of a family of successful criminals. Adam, who bears more than a passing resemblance to The Godfather’s Michael Corleone, will stop at nothing (including murder) to get what he wants, and what he wants is Josie.
This novel, while appearing initially to be firmly in the tradition of Catherine Cookson, begins rather than ends with a marriage. Adam regards Josie as not much more than a biddable child-bride in the tradition of Dora Spenlow from Charles Dickens’ David Coppperfield, but she turns out to have rather more mettle. Josie doesn’t just defy convention when she flees Sunderland for New York, her baby in tow; she is in fear for her life.
She flies in the face of convention again when faced with the limited choices open to a lone mother in the melting pot of the metropolis, realising that her voice offers her the best chance, and turns out also to be a capable businesswoman. There is great historical detail, especially around the sort of days out available to families in fin-de-siècle New York.
But the McGuigans have not finished with her yet, and more than a decade later there is a knock at her door. Josie is to learn in the hardest way possible that blood will out. A Woman of Courage is carefully plotted with an exciting finale. A rags-to-riches saga, yes, but with substance.
