A Taste for Nightshade
Martine Bailey
2016, 464 pages
Historical fiction
When Mary Jebb swindles Michael Croxon’s brother with a fake pound note, she has no idea that it will change her life. Convicted for theft and transported to Australia in 1787, she sends Michael a “Penny Heart” – a copper heart inscribed with a verse – as a token of her revenge. Two years later Michael’s lonely, isolated bride Grace turns to her newly hired cook for insight and advice about her marriage, unaware that Mary Jebb has come at last to redeem her Penny Heart.
A Taste for Nightshade, which is based in part on the true story of Australian convict and escapee Mary Bryant, is a vividly descriptive Gothic with nuanced characterization. It’s easy to sympathize with Michael and Grace as they are deceived by Mary, but it’s Mary who blazes off the page. Her story is larger than life and almost too bizarre to be believed, but it’s the most bizarre elements that are taken from Mary Bryant’s life and really did happen. Even as Mary spirals further and further into her quest for revenge, she remains vivid and compelling. A Taste for Nightshade is entertaining historical fiction at its best.
Nora Cascadden
Concord Public Library
Visit CPL at concordpubliclibrary.net.
