Reviews

The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby

rebeccahussey's review

This novel is a Victorian thriller about a young woman who, abandoned by her mother, grew up in a Birmingham workhouse. She is now about to begin work as a servant, but she has very little idea about how things work in a respectable house. She is haunted by a violent past and the loss of her dearest friend. The man in whose house she is now an employee turns out to be a scientist interested in conducting experiments on human subjects to test out his theories on poverty and criminality. Cora gets caught up in these experiments even as she is only beginning to figure out her own difficult past. I loved being immersed in the gritty world of Birmingham and learning what a housemaid’s job is like at the same time Cora learns it. The novel is immersive, and the ideas it explores are fascinating.

https://bookriot.com/2019/05/10/may-2019-indie-press-books/