Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl by Fiona Britton

Title: Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl

Author: Fiona Britton

Genre: Historical Crime

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 2^nd August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages:296

Price: $32.99

Synopsis: Phryne Fisher meets Underbelly in an arch, out-of-the-box debut historical crime caper.

A centuries-old curse, a house of secrets and a young woman determined to find out the truth.

Sydney, 1930: In a well-heeled corner of Paddington, just a short distance from the razor gangs of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross, sits La Maison des Fleurs, an upscale brothel run by the indomitable Madame. The star of La Maison is Violet Kelly – beautiful, clever, and determined to make something of herself in a world that has already taken so much.

When a former associate of Madame’s emerges to claim a long-owed favour involving a kidnapped girl and an ancient curse, Violet is drawn into a risky game of cat and mouse that takes her from dangerous underworld dealings to raucous parties to untold stories about her own past, and, eventually, right into the heart of La Maison des Fleurs. But how much is she willing to risk to save her friends, her home, and the life she’s come to love? And will it be enough?

Violet Kelly is Agatha Christie meets Underbelly, with a Beretta tucked into her French lingerie.

~*~

It’s 1930, and the Great Depression has Sydney in its grip, with so many people out of work and the shadows of the Great War hanging over everyone as they try to make sense of a new world. Violet Kelly has been living in La Maison des Fleurs, a star prostitute with a keen eye for justice. She’s also a good friend and carer for Madame’s niece, Bunny, who also lives at the brothel. When Shen arrives, the girls are shocked but do what they can to help, especially when it becomes clear that a former associate of Madame’s is involved, as is an ancient curse involving a jade owl. Soon, everyone is in danger as the former associate comes for them, trying to take Shen away. Violet, Bunny, and Madame are drawn into a dangerous world where everything could be taken from them in an instant.

Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl is Fiona’s debut novel, and it brings the world of Sydney’s brothels, debauchery, and underworld figures to life in the 1930s for a modern audience. In the days of the Razor Gangs, Tilly Devine, and Squizzy Taylor during the Great Depression, a time when people were desperate, and would do anything to achieve their goals. As the story unfolds, danger lurks in the shadows and Violet and Bunny work on a plan to save Shen. They’re determined to make sure the threat goes away and deter the curse that they’ve been told the jade owl will bring upon them and the fate that will befall them. Everything is richly rendered, and told through Violet and her twin, Ivy’s, perspective, as Ivy’s story becomes entwined with Violet’s more and more as the story goes on, and the secrets and mysteries unfold. The ever-present threat means that the characters and the reader will be on edge throughout the story, and where we never really know what is around the corner, because apart from the main characters, I felt that it was one of those stories where you never really know who to trust. In doing this, Fiona Britton has created an intense mystery where things are not what they seem, where class and race in the 1930s are present and obvious, as the divides were very apparent in those days, especially as it was the Great Depression. And the cultural misunderstandings played out effectively, but also allowed for the diversity of Sydney in the 1930s to be shown, and I also liked seeing that in this instance, the characters were more concerned about helping each other and those who needed help, and judging people on the actions, at least through Violet’s eyes.

Showing that there are many ways of understanding the world came through in this novel, and I liked that it showed that your experiences can shape how you see the world and relate to the world because there is something true in that. Our worldview is shaped by our experiences and what we know, and this is where I think Violet was a great character, because it felt like she didn’t judge people too much. It felt like she saw people for who they were, and worked with that rather than what they looked like. She was one of those characters who when she did judge people, it was based on their actions and what they said rather than what society told her someone was like based on race, class, or gender. And I think she fitted well into her world and was a little bit like Phryne Fisher with a twist. It sits well within the amateur detectives’ books set in the 1920s and 1930s, in particular, Phryne Fisher and Rowland Sinclair, as these are worlds that take place around the same time, within Melbourne and Sydney, and deal with some of the same issues and real-life people who populate Violet’s world. Each is unique, and there is space for them all because Violet’s world is starkly different to someone like Rowly, but each have the possibility to crossover, as men of Rowly’s class (not Rowly, of course) appear as clients in the brothel Violet works at. I found that this was where the class divide was shown starkly, and again when we see the homeless people during the Great Depression.

This novel felt like it was the beginning of the series, as the climax of the novel built to something that wasn’t quite resolved, a threat that lingers nearby but is perhaps dormant for now. It feels like this person might come back, yet at the same time, the feeling of unease suits the ending if it is a standalone book, because not everything is always wrapped up neatly like in a Disney movie or the movies of my childhood. Sometimes, things just end, and we don’t know what is going to happen next. And that is okay as well for this book, as Violet has some resolution that works within this story. A great debut and an author to keep an eye on.