The Butterfly Collector
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A botanical illustration of a butterfly, a missing baby, and a twisty mystery fifty years in the making.
1868, Morpeth. Theodora Breckenridge, still in mourning after the loss of her parents and brother at sea, is more interested in working quietly on her art at the family’s country estate than she is in finding a husband in Sydney society, even if her elder sister Florence has other ideas. Theodora seeks to emulate prestigious nature illustrators, the Scott sisters, who lived nearby. She cannot believe her luck when she discovers a butterfly never before seen in Australia. With the help of her maid Clarrie and her beautiful drawings, Theodora is poised to make a scientific discovery that will put her name on the map. Then Clarrie’s newborn son goes missing and everything changes.
1922, Sydney. When would-be journalist Verity Binks is sent an anonymous parcel containing a spectacular butterfly costume along with an invitation to the Sydney Artists Masquerade Ball the same day she loses her job at The Arrow, she is both baffled and determined to attend. Her late grandfather, Sid, an esteemed newspaperman, would expect no less of her. At the ball, she lands a juicy commission to write the history of the Treadwell Foundation, an institution that supports disgraced young women and their babies. As she begins to dig, her research quickly leads her to an increasingly dark and complex mystery—a mystery fifty years in the making. Can she solve it? And will anyone believe her if she does?
The Butterfly Collector is USA TODAY bestselling author Tea Cooper at her best.
Historical mystery set in Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900sStand-alone novel featuring two strong female leadsIncludes discussion questions for book clubsAlso by Tea Cooper: The Fossil Hunter, The Cartographer’s Secret, The Girl in the Painting, and The Woman in the Green Dress
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The immersive latest from Cooper (The Fossil Hunter) interweaves two historical narratives linked by butterflies and family bonds. In 1868 Morpeth, Australia, Theodora Breckenridge has her heart set on becoming a scientific illustrator. When she catches a monarch butterfly, a species never seen in Australia, she hopes that her discovery will launch her career. Her sharp-eyed housemaid Clarrie Binks helps her find and document more monarchs. One day, while Clarrie's infant son Charlie is in the care of a midwife, an unidentified woman abducts him. Charlie is swiftly and safely recovered, but the woman is not apprehended. In a parallel narrative set in 1922, Charlie's orphaned daughter, Verity Binks, is an aspiring journalist in Sydney. She supplements her freelance income with a commission to write a history of the Treadwell Foundation, a private home for unwed mothers and adoption agency in the city. In the foundation's office, Verity finds a striking watercolor of a monarch butterfly with a reference to Morpeth in a handwritten note. Her curiosity piqued, she travels to Morpeth, where she uncovers connections between Treadwell and her family's past, along with hints of Treadwell's unsavory adoption practices. Cooper melds fictional lives, scientific history, and social issues into a compassionate story. This will please fans of historicals with smart women protagonists.
