Young Walter Moody arrives in a small town in New Zealand in the middle of the 1866 gold rush, intent on forgetting his past. Walter’s problems soon pale by comparison with the dastardly murk preoccupying most of the people he encounters. Secrecy drives this enormous Man Booker-winning second novel, a baggy monster of much daring. The unfortunate prostitute Anna, suspected of attempted suicide on the same day that a man is found dead, remains sympathetic through being in the clutches of the evil, intelligent Mrs Lydia Wells, a calculating madam who exploits all who enter her sphere. For a novel that looks to the Victorian convention of cliff-hanger suspense, discoveries, seances, dead babies, betrayal and greed, there is also a touch of Restoration comedy, particularly in its timing and high-speed dialogue. As for her colourful morality tale of crazy deeds perpetrated in the pursuit of wealth, it is the rogue’s gallery of characters, each generating a series of interconnected happenings, that will sustain most readers.
