Publisher: Hachette Australia (Trade Paperback – 28 August 2024)

Series: Petticoat Police Mystery – Book One

Length: 312 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Australian author Lainie Anderson presents a fun and compelling historical murder mystery that looks at a unique Australian historical figure with The Death of Dora Black.

Plot Synopsis:

Summer, Adelaide, 1917. The impeccably dressed Miss Kate Cocks might look more like a schoolmistress than a policewoman, but don’t let that fool you. She’s a household name, wrangling wayward husbands into repentance, seeing through deceptive clairvoyants, and rescuing young women (whether they like it or not) with the help of a five-foot cane and her sassy junior constable, Ethel Bromley.

*In 1915, Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary as men. This novel is a rich exploration of that little-known chapter of Australian history.*

The Death of Dora Black was a particularly interesting and entertaining read from Lainie Anderson, who has struck upon a fascinating figure to set her book around.  The first book in Anderson’s new Petticoat Policy Mystery series, The Death of Dora Black was a clever novel that blended the real-life history of the infamous Miss Kate Cocks with the author’s own crime fiction narrative.

Starting out in Adelaide, 1917, the book’s story sees formidable real-life police officer Miss Kate Cocks become embroiled in a deadly murder mystery when shop assistant Dora Black is found dead on the city’s beach.  What follows is an excellent story that blends the historical exploits of Cocks, which included helping the needy of Adelaide in her own unique way and attempting to save the morality of the young women of the city with her cane, with a gritty informal murder investigation.  This later investigation of course adds most of the meat to the story, as Cocks, and her junior constable Ethel Bromley, uncover a dark conspiracy of murder, drugs and kidnapping, with its roots deep in the heart of the city.

Anderson brings these disparate elements together into a fantastic overall read, and it was fascinating to see the more cozy and historical elements you would associate with Kate Cocks and her real-life actions blend with a darker murder plot.  I felt that Anderson’s main murder mystery was very well set out, and the resulting investigation by two underestimated women got quite thrilling and exciting.  There are some dark moments and intriguing twists featured throughout this plot, and Anderson produces a particularly powerful crime fiction narrative.  The entire murder mystery and the investigative arc came together extremely well, and I really enjoyed seeing Anderson’s unique protagonists trying to solve the case in their own unique way.  The background setting of Adelaide during World War I also added quite a lot to the narrative, and the author provided a complex and detailed recreation of the historical setting.

The real highlight of The Death of Dora Black was the intriguing main protagonists, Miss Kate Cocks and her junior constable Ethel Bromley.  The two protagonists play off each other extremely well throughout the course of the novel, and the blend of personalities, with the strict but caring Kate and the sassy and exceedingly keen Ethel, proved to be a winning combination.  Readers will particularly enjoy Anderson’s portrayal of Miss Kate Cocks in this book, especially as the author tried to capture all this unique figures’ quirks and historical reputation.  Anderson, who is a major expert on Kate Cocks, paints her as a particularly complex and conflicted figure driven by her religious principals but also willing to do the moral choice and help anyone in need.  It was fascinating to see Miss Cocks wander around historical Adeliade, distributing her moral judgement with her cane, while also solving problems no-one else can.  Anderson succeeded in capturing various aspects of her occasionally controversial history, and I really appreciated the way in which she converted her into a fearsome crime-fighting force, capable of hunting down murderers and drug smugglers.  The utilisation of this very distinctive figure helped to turn The Death of Dora Black into something very special, and I look forward to more exploits with Miss Kate Cocks in the future.

Overall, I felt that The Death of Dora Black was an amazing and highly entertaining novel from Lainie Anderson, who successfully brings her real-life historical protagonist to life and sets a wonderfully enjoyable crime fiction book around her.  Clever, fascinating, and with a lot of crossover appeal to many different readers, The Death of Dora Black was a great book, and I had a ton of fun getting through it.

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