Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, by Fiona Britton

Miss Fisher meets Underbelly in this tale of a young sex worker in 1930s Sydney. Academically gifted and beautiful teen Violet Kelly sees few prospects for a good life on leaving the orphanage in Paddington with her best friend Albert. While he apprentices as a butcher, she joins the local brothel, La Maison des Fleurs, to train as a high class provider of sexual services to men with money. But Madame owes favours to gangsters who are connected to powerful and dangerous people, which puts her house and everyone connected to it at risk. Britton creates some interesting characters and paints a vivid picture of life in the violent Sydney slums, particularly the hardships faced by women and children. Unfortunately the book needed several more drafts, better historical research and more attentive editing and proofreading, which would have avoided the typos, mistakes and sloppy anachronisms that let down the story. There is so much packed in, including a Chinese curse, a missing twin, police corruption and a conveniently devoted diplomat that it becomes a hodgepodge of action, much of which is not believable. Sex work is lauded as a positive choice for a working class girl with no family, but there is little reference to any downside, like STDs, abortion or violent punters and Violet’s purported intelligence and looks would have given her more options than most. The title and the ending clearly set up the novel for Violet Kelly sequels, a la Kerry Greenwood, but Phryne Fisher she ain’t.