Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge

In the late 1840s, Constance Horton went to sea. She’d always been the adventurous sister but met her end while garbed as a cabin boy on a vessel sent to the Arctic Passage in search of missing explorer Sir John Franklin’s crew. Her sister Maude, previously content to stay home in their grandfather’s drugstore, is inflamed with a desire for answers about Constance’s death—and, more important, for vengeance. Using her chemical knowledge, her sister’s journal, and Victorian society’s predisposition to underestimate women, Maude uncovers the facts of the murder and pursues a cold-blooded killer. Pook’s (Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter) sophomore novel is rich in period details about a 19th-century murder obsession. Sections told through the eyes of Maude’s target add intensity as listeners learn more of his character. Narrator Genevieve Gaunt skillfully distinguishes the narrative voices of Maude and Constance (through her diary) as well as the alleged researcher and businessman for whom murder is an easy path to riches. Gaunt also applies regional and class-based accents for a multitude of characters both aboard the arctic ship Makepeace and back in London, where Maude investigates many levels of society.