The Butterfly Women: Murder and survival in colonial Melbourne

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 on