THE WRECKER'S DAUGHTER

Baker brings the world of the 19th-century wrecking industry to life in this historical novel.

The village of St. Rose in Cornwall, England, sustains itself on a peculiar trade: salvage. The law says that when a ship smashes on the treacherous rocks off the coast, whoever can grab its contents, either from the sea or from the shore, is the new rightful owner—if everyone aboard the ship is dead. This leads to macabre practices, even by children, such as 14-year-old Hannah Pendarves and her younger siblings, who find a still-living man on the beach and promptly bash in his head so they can loot his pockets. Only later does Hannah learn that dead man hadn’t been swept in from a ship at all, but was a gentleman of some importance whose murder is of interest to the constable. The teen feels no guilt for taking the man’s life—she views anyone not from St. Rose as a “foreigner” and therefore undeserving of empathy—but she’d prefer not to bring the eyes of the law on wreckers’ work. When Hannah’s father, salvager Hap Pendarves, is convinced by his new wife to get Hannah out of the house, he places his daughter as a servant (and spy) in the home of Falmouth shipping agent, Francis Keverne, who turns out to be related to the man she murdered. Hannah’s time outside the community of St. Rose soon has her wondering if the kill-and-steal ethic is really the best way to live. Over the course of this novel, Baker masterfully recreates the salt and grit of the period. This extend to the wreckers’ dialect, which is generally clear and straightforward, if occasionally confusing: “Tain’t that,” Hannah says, expressing her father’s intention to wed a local widow. “The Widdy Chegwidden is out of mourning today. He’s after marrying she.” Most impressive, though, is the author’s rendering of the violent, clannish culture of the Cornwall wreckers, which, over the course of Hannah’s journey, is engagingly portrayed from both the outside and inside.

A darkly immersive coming-of-age story set on the hazardous coast of Cornwall.