Disclaimer: Although I have received complimentary copies of earlier books by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, I actually purchased the Kindle version of The Suffragette’s Secret. This review reflects my personal, unbiased opinion.
The Suffragette’s Secret: A Morton Farrier Short Story is the next book in the on-going series detailing the life and adventures of Morton Farrier, the forensic genealogist.
As I already knew a bit about the sufferings that women went through, both in England and the United States (and probably elsewhere in the world) to gain the right to vote, I eagerly looked forward to reading the story of Grace Emmerson Barwise.
Morton certainly has quite a genealogical pedigree to investigate (as he was adopted), but it turns out his wife, Juliette, also has at least one interesting character in her own line – her great grandmother, Grace, the suffragette.
This short story does an excellent job of realistically portraying what suffragettes of the early 20th century truly suffered, being manhandled by police, scorned by much of the public and serving prison terms for their “offenses.”
This story also tells of the birth of Morton and Juliette’s first child, expected to be a boy named Albert, but that turns out to definitely NOT be the case, and explains how the baby came to be named.
Unlike the other Morton Farrier stories, Morton researches the events of Grace’s life without any modern day thugs attempting to stop his quest. His research is very straightforward and smooth, compared to his other cases.
I have to admit that, while I enjoyed reading about Grace Emmerson Barwise’s determined efforts to give women the vote, there was one event in the story which I didn’t like and kind of ruined the book for me. Not wanting to spoil the story for anyone else, I will only say that Grace was a heroine in my eyes until she exacted one deadly act of revenge. That act changed my opinion of her!
In spite of my reaction to the story, I would still highly recommend The Suffragette’s Secret, which continues to tell the story of Morton Farrier’s life.
Visit Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s website for information on purchasing this book and/or any of his other books.
This is the next book for me to read from Nathan’s excellent series. Thanks for the heads-up about Grace’s character. She sounds like an interesting person!
She definitely was, but because of her one act, she wasn’t a heroine to me!