The Women of Pearl Island

 “The Women of Pearl Island” by Polly Crosby 352 pages

 If you are looking for a page-turner, you’ll want to pass on this beautiful, atmospheric novel. The plot builds steadily and gives lots of surprises, but it is the land and seascapes that make this novel a must-read. 

Tartelin Brown is having trouble moving past the death of her mother. She needs to get away from London and accepts a position as a personal assistant to an elderly woman in a wheelchair on an island off the British coast. 

The island is owned by the Stourbridge family. The elderly woman who calls it home is the last of her lineage. Miss Marianne was raised on Dohhalund (name of the island). Her family made their money from the herring trade and the pearls that are farmed off the island’s rugged coastline. It is a primitive place to live---no cell service, no electricity, and no phones. 

Tartelin’s main job is to collect a variety of butterflies so that Marianne can study them. Something happened on the island during World War II. Something that involved the nuclear testing done there, but no records have survived. Marianne is sure she can find answers in the butterflies that she has been collecting since 1955. 

The book has two timelines: 1955 and 2018. In 1955, a young girl comes to live with the family. Marianne distrusts her as she seems to steal all of Dad’s attention. But there is a bigger secret that Marianne uncovers. In 2018, as Tartelin roams the island in search of butterflies, she meets many people who help her discover the secrets.  

I enjoyed the scenery a lot, but the plotline was a tad slow for me. The book’s title was a mystery until near the story’s end when the island is referred to as Pearl Island. If that sentence had been deleted, the reader would never get it.  Or at least this reader wouldn’t.  Therefore, I’m going to give “The Women of Pearl Island,” 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.