Boon's Bookcase

 The Corset

by

Laura Purcell

Is prisoner Ruth Butterham mad or a murderer? Victim or villain?

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.

When Dorothea's charitable work leads her to Oakgate Prison, she finds herself drawn to Ruth, a teenage seamstress - and self-confessed murderess - who nurses a dark and uncanny secret. A secret that is leading her straight to the gallows. As Ruth reveals her disturbing past to Dorothea, the fates of these two women entwine, and with every revelation, a new layer of doubt is cast...

Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?

REVIEW

Ruth and Dorothea come from completely different walks of life. Dorothea is rich and spends her time doing charity work which includes visiting and talking to prisoners awaiting the death sentence. 

Ruth was bullied when she was at school and her saving grace was when she went home and helped her mother with sewing beautiful gloves for the rich, but when her father dies and her mother becomes destitute, Ruth is sent to Metyards, a dressmakers, who her mother worked for previously. Ruth is treated so badly there, as were other girls, that she thinks she would have been better off in the debtor's jail, but she believes her sewing has magical powers and this will help her to get revenge on the Metyard family.

The corset that Ruth makes for Kate Metyard for her wedding is superb, but Ruth is convinced that it's power will kill Kate off. Is this why Ruth is in prison and having visits from Dorothea?

This is a great gothic thriller which keeps you guessing until the very last page. I really enjoyed this book. It was the first I have read by this author, but I have now started reading The Whispering Muse as I love her writing. 

Would thoroughly recommend to lovers of dark, gothic stories.