• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2022 May #2
  *Starred Review* Men who go down to the sea in ships do not always return. Such is the case of Charles Brightwell, who has fled poverty in London with his wife and children to follow his brother to Western Australia, where untold riches await him as a master pearler. But when Brightwell's ship pulls into port without him after a pearl harvest, his daughter, Eliza, refuses to accept his disappearance. Perhaps an accident has left him adrift in the violent ocean? Could he have been murdered by an Aboriginal crew member? Or is there another reason for his absence, one that alludes to the corruption and blackmail rife throughout Bannin Bay? The social values of the late-nineteenth century make it nearly impossible for a woman to try to solve such mysteries on her own, but Eliza has experienced too many losses in her young life to accept another. With the spirited Eliza at its heart, Pook's evocative debut novel spins a tale of intrigue and deception with a deft combination of gripping pacing and emotional restraint. Travel writer and journalist Pook's heightened observational skills are well employed in this lavish tableau showcasing Australia's vast and exotic natural treasures and fraught history. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2022 May #2
  *Starred Review* Men who go down to the sea in ships do not always return. Such is the case of Charles Brightwell, who has fled poverty in London with his wife and children to follow his brother to Western Australia, where untold riches await him as a master pearler. But when Brightwell's ship pulls into port without him after a pearl harvest, his daughter, Eliza, refuses to accept his disappearance. Perhaps an accident has left him adrift in the violent ocean? Could he have been murdered by an Aboriginal crew member? Or is there another reason for his absence, one that alludes to the corruption and blackmail rife throughout Bannin Bay? The social values of the late-nineteenth century make it nearly impossible for a woman to try to solve such mysteries on her own, but Eliza has experienced too many losses in her young life to accept another. With the spirited Eliza at its heart, Pook's evocative debut novel spins a tale of intrigue and deception with a deft combination of gripping pacing and emotional restraint. Travel writer and journalist Pook's heightened observational skills are well employed in this lavish tableau showcasing Australia's vast and exotic natural treasures and fraught history. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Lizzie Pook is a London-based travel writer and journalist whose work has taken her to some of the farthest-flung parts of the planet, from the trans-Himalayas—in search of elusive snow leopards—to the vast, uninhabited east coast of Greenland. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times (London), The Evening Standard, and Stylist. Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is her first novel.