Madeleine Clearys The Butterfly Women brings colonial Melbourne to life in a gripping tale of murder, resilience and the women who refused to be forgotten, writesAnne Layton-Bennett.

INITIALLY, THIS NOVEL seemed to be aJack the Ripper-type whodunit set in colonial Melbourne during the 1860s. While its certainly a murder mystery involving a serial killer, the book is also a social history of that period, albeit one that focuses on women's stories rather than men's.

It was learning about and then researching some of her ancestors that prompted the idea forMadeleine Clearys first novel,The Butterfly Women. Several of her forbears once lived in the citys seedier red light area, formerly known as Little Lon, bulldozed during the 1940s. One of the storys principal protagonists, Johanna, is loosely based on her great-great-great-grandmother.

History books tend to focus on the lives of men, but it was the womens lives that fascinated Cleary and how they managed to survive when their menfolk were absent, either away on the goldfields, in prison, or dead. The womens precarious lives were too often in servitude and for the mostly unskilled and illiterate women in Little Lon, the only other option was prostitution.

If they were lucky, the younger ones might become dressed girls, living and working in the relative safety of brothels at least until their looks faded, they were considered too old, or their services were no longer being requested. At that point, it was onto the streets to rely on the riskier business of streetwalking or petty crime to keep a roof over their head and put food in the mouths of their children.

A new book detailing the life of one of Australia's most charismatic criminals also serves as a commentary on the media, the police and the justice system.

To tell the story of these butterfly women, Cleary drew on the documented accounts of women who mostly hailed from Ireland and England to create all her female characters. Each played a part in uncovering the identity of the serial killer whose victims, like those of the infamous Jack, were also prostitutes. They include the exotic and flamboyant Madame Laurent, owner and Madam of the brothel Papillon, where Johanna eventually becomes a dressed girl following a shocking and brutal attack by her former employer, and being left for dead.

Then there is Mary Jenkins, who donned her police constable husbands uniform so she could patrol the streets of Little Lon and prevent her husband from losing his job when he was too drunk to work. As this was a frequent occurrence, Mary became a known and respected figure even by the authorities who chose to turn a blind eye to the fact she was a woman in a mans role.

And then would-be journalist Harriett, a recent arrival from England with her two over-protective brothers, whose investigative journalism ambitions were dismissed as an unsuitable occupation for a woman. Her reporting was therefore limited to writing puff pieces for the newspapers social pages.

But despite their different backgrounds and social status, the murders linked each of them together as they joined forces and used their skills, abilities and intellect to work out the killers identity.

Each woman symbolised the butterfly persona an emblem popular at the time that Cleary uses to represent the lives of all women who struggled to overcome the social conventions of the time and escape the restrictions that were imposed upon them by men.

Kate Grenville retraces her ancestors colonial paths across Australia, confronting the legacy of dispossession and exploring what it means to live on stolen land.

For lovers of historical crime, set in Melbournes early colonial days, this is an engaging and satisfying read. As the body count rises, so does the pace and the tension. For the sharp-eyed, there are clues along the way to identify the murderer, but I found the social aspects of life in a still-emerging city that was also finding its own identity, just as interesting as discovering who did it.

In the 1860s, many people left Ireland, Scotland and England for good, and perhaps not so good, and even nefarious reasons. For better or worse, they likely all arrived with hopes for a better life in Australia, but whatever their social status was or had been most faced a precarious hand-to-mouth existence. They were all just trying to survive, but the camaraderie and sense of community were strong, and never more so than among the women.

Those who lived in Little Lon were a close-knit community where the women looked out for and supported each other. And between them, they also caught the killer who was determined to silence them.

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary is published bySimon and Schuster.

This book was reviewed by an IA Book Club member.If you would like to receivefreehigh-quality books and have your reviewpublishedon IA,subscribeto receive yourcomplimentaryIA Book Club membership.

Anne Layton-Bennettis a writer based in Tasmania.

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