Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge

A Novel

By: Lizzie Pook

Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt

A young woman searches for the truth about her sister, who boarded a ship headed to the frozen Arctic and never returned in this “engrossing historical mystery” (The Washington Post).

Twenty-year-old Constance Horton has run away from her life in Victorian London, disguising herself as a boy to board the Makepeace, an expedition vessel bound for the icy and unexplored Northwest Passage of the Arctic. She struggles to keep her real identity a secret on the ship, a feat that only grows more difficult when facing the constant dangers of the icy North.

Even more dangerous than the cold, the storms, and the hunger, are some of the men aboard—including the ship’s scientist Edison Stowe. He’s watching Constance, and she knows that his attention could be fatal.

In London two years later: Maude Horton is searching for the truth. After being told by the British Admiralty that her sister’s death onboard the Makepeace was nothing more than a tragic accident, she receives a diary revealing that Edison Stowe had more of a hand in Constance’s death than the returning crew acknowledged.

In order to get the answers she needs, Maude shadows Edison. She joins him on a new venture he’s started to capitalize on the murder mania that has all of London in a frenzy—a travel company that takes guests around the country via train to witness public hangings—to extract the truth from him in any way possible.

Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge is a “brilliant” (Publishers Weekly), “addictive” (Emilia Hart, New York Times bestselling author of Weyword), “utterly compulsive” (Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters) novel about the lengths we will go to for justice—and for love.

grizzly and dark

I had to keep starting this book over again because my mind would drift and I couldn't figure out what was going on.

this book just isn't for me. I understand giving details and I'm sure a lot of people will like it, but it was dark and grizzly and graphic. I finished it because I had used credit on it. I wish I could have that credit back. I would not recommend this book both in the way the story is told and in the content.

Unrelievedly grim, characters, story, and setting

Focus was cursory where it should have been deep, repetitive where only cursory attention was needed.