Smoke and Silk
The East End of London, June 1888, and widowed Pearl Fitzgerald returns to her dying father’s pub, the Sailor’s Inn in Limehouse. This is a raucous establishment with a mostly uncouth and incipiently violent crowd. Pearl’s deceased mother was Chinese. Pearl is shocked to discover that while she was living in Portsmouth her father had married the feisty barmaid Betty Sullivan, hence presumably disinheriting her. She then encounters a dying, murdered Chinese man on the shore of the Thames and is thrown into the investigation when her help is sought and the police are not terribly engaged in the crime. It is a dangerous and murky world of crime and drugs. The year 1888 in east London, is of course, notorious for the start of the horrific crimes committed by Jack the Ripper, which also feature in this crime-ridden part of London. There is the question of Pearl’s loyalties and the struggle to survive in the maelstrom of working-class London. Pearl explores elements of her sexuality, which in her times were generally frowned upon by society.
This is Fiona Keating’s first novel, and while the quality of prose as fiction is competent, it is not outstanding by any means. The story rumbles along well enough, though some elements of the plot and the playing out of events are simply implausible. The historical context is sound, with lots of lively contemporary (for then) slang thrown in. Some real characters such as the trailblazing female legal worker Eliza Orme, as well as Bertie, the philandering Prince of Wales, are included in the mix. This is mostly an enjoyable, undemanding read, with the book’s ending suggesting that a sequel is in the offing.
