20th November 2024
One day in November 1851, Eliza Cargill – a recently widowed 20 year-old in Monterey, California – is approached in the street by a Mrs Parks. “Dear, if you find yourself in embarrassed circumstances, don’t hesitate to come to me. I think I can help you” offers the latter. A short time later, Eliza – having changed her surname to Ripple – duly takes her place in Mrs Parks’s bordello.
The madame does not encourage the girls in her stable to learn too much about each other but, separately, Eliza does strike up a close friendship with Jean MacPherson, whose own line of employment is to “attend to the needs of ladies, not men”. Jean, who for some of her clients dresses up in men’s clothes and calls herself John, claims to frequently encounter ghosts around the town though, to her frustration, she is unable to communicate with them.
Jean introduces Eliza to Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder in the Rue Morgue and so it is that when two other young prostitutes mysteriously disappear – followed by the discovery of a corpse on the bank of a river out of town and then the murder of one of Jean’s clients – the two women set about attempting to solve the crimes. Eliza, in particular, is captivated by the detective skills of Poe’s Parisian sleuth, Inspector Dupin. (Poe himself had died in 1849 at the age of 40).
In undertaking this task, Eliza and Jean largely have the field to themselves. When it comes to upholding the law and seeking justice in Monterey, the lead is usually taken by ad hoc vigilante groups, but none is established for this case. (Likewise, no effort had been previously been made to identify or apprehend the man who had fatally shot Eliza’s abusive husband – Peter Cargill – following an argument in a bar).
Whilst not exactly a one-horse town, Monterey has only a single sheriff (with no constables) for its official law enforcement and it becomes clear to Eliza and Jean that the girls’ disappearance is of no interest to him. When Eliza asks why they should investigate the case, when the sheriff will not, Jean’s response is immediate: “Because we have to. So what if we are beginners and have no idea what we’re doing?”
Jane Smiley presents the narrative with a light touch. By present-day standards, of course, Monterey in the 1850s would have been a hard – at times, grim – place in which to live, but the author does not dwell on this to any great extent. Similarly, Eliza’s daily routine would have been dangerous and unpleasant, albeit that Mrs Parks – a strict but sympathetic overseer of her premises – employs the capable Carlos as a permanent security presence during working hours. The author’s standard – if not coy – reference to Eliza’s sexual encounters is of her clients – townsfolk, sailors, adolescent boys – simply “doing their business”.
The historical context is similarly presented in a low-key way although, on occasion, it does seem as if there is an obvious checklist of reference points that must be included by the author. Hence, it is Mrs Parks who, for no obvious reason, refers to the first women’s rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848; a couple of characters refer to the inevitability of a Civil War between the Slave and Non-Slave States; and Eliza, having learned of the legal disputes surrounding the route of the railway from the East to California when with one client, raises it in pre-coital conversation with the next in what can only be described as slightly unusual verbal foreplay.
As for Eliza and Jean’s amateur detective work, there are times when the credibility is somewhat stretched. For a complete novice in this line of work, the former demonstrates a remarkable skill in matching some distinctive footprints behind a tree in a graveyard with, later, those in a muddy street following a heavy rainstorm. Inspector Dupin – indeed Sherlock Holmes himself – would have been impressed with such acute powers of observation.
The murder mystery is efficiently solved by Eliza and Jean, of course, with – from their perspective, at least – no loose ends left remaining. It seemed to me that their success was based on gut feeling and intuition, however, rather than the accumulation of any firm evidence. Moreover, a key twist in the resolution is based on the previous fateful acquaintance in another State of two individuals who had hitherto featured as separate characters in the story.
Jane Smiley has delivered a cosy narrative, the immersion in which allows us to be transported back to an earlier time in what is now the Golden State. However, the rose-tinting of some of the circumstances, combined with an overall flatness of delivery, leave the strong impression that there is much that has been left unsaid.
JR Alexander 