Velvet

Mary Hooper (author)

Bloomsbury, UK: Australian release September 2011; 336pp

ISBN: 9780747599210

Genres: historical fiction

Issues: friendship, identity

Velvet is employed in a steam laundry in Victorian England. For an orphan such as herself it is one of the few respectable places for a young woman to work. A tendency to faint in the heat and humidity puts her place at risk. When Velvet convinces her boss to give her a chance at a less unhealthy location within the laundry, little does Velvet realise that her whole life is about to change.

Madame Savoya, a sensational clairvoyant who caters to the rich and famous of London, takes Velvet into her household. At first seduced by the glamour of fine clothes, handsome people and the mysterious nature of Madame's work, Velvet gradually finds herself drawn further into dark secrets that may endanger her very life. Unable to ignore her doubts and questions any longer, and haunted by her own past, Velvet struggles to make an ethical decision.

Mary Hooper is a popular writer of historical fiction, her stories mostly relating to young women struggling to survive in an era when women were regarded as property. Velvet is a somewhat irritating heroine. Her naivety in relation to her employer's work seems unlikely given her abusive father's roles as 'Mr Magic' at children's parties. Although the narrative is sufficiently well constructed to keep the pages turning, the real focus of the novel is the history – the Victorian fascination with spiritualism. The research is thorough and many real characters are cleverly embedded in the novel. Unfortunately the research makes Madame Savoya and her assistant, George, more believable than Velvet herself. If Hooper intended to portray Velvet as a rather silly girl full of romantic notions and delusions of grandeur, then she succeeds admirably. It is only in the final chapters of the book that readers are left with a hint of who Velvet might really have been, the possible depth of character that never quite unfolds.

Entertaining light reading for ten years and older.