by Lyn Yeowart
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia, 2025
Review
by Robyn Pryor
How wonderful to be ensconced in an Australian crime novel like The Hollow Girl, a gripping story laced with murder and the historic powerlessness of women. It’s written from three points of view with a cracking pace.
I was shocked to learn “havens” for unwed mothers were operational in Australia while I was growing up. Under different circumstances, I could’ve suffered the same treatment as the girls at Harrowford, with little hope for the future. Two timelines alternate between 1961 and 1973, the story following unwed, pregnant women who are treated as slaves. Their babies were put up for adoption without their consent; the perfect setting for revenge.
The prologue, The Last Murder, hooked me immediately. This was a promise of more than one murder, a delicious prospect. Each chapter ended with suspense and had me itching to discover what came next.
The disempowerment of the characters evokes a myriad of emotions: empathy, anger, and frustration. My favourite character is detective, Eleanor Smith, a knowledgeable woman. She’s completed many courses in murder investigation, and is an expert reader of body language. However, when she questions suspects, responses from both men and women are directed to her younger, inexperienced, male offsider. She has to solve the case, but also continually prove her competence. Despite the obstacles, she remains tenacious and determined.
Other characters I grew fond of were Jane and Marilyn. I read in horror of the conditions they endured, unable to look away from the page. They were stripped of confidence, drugged, and forced to live at the austere Harrowford Hall, in an isolated rural area of Victoria from where there was no escape.
There were some interesting twists in the investigation. I was sure I had the murderer pegged, but had to change my mind several times. A fabulous crime story embedded with invaluable lessons: the importance of education, the way shame can destroy relationships, and the victim can become the persecutor.
I highly recommend The Hollow Girl, especially to anyone interested in the history of women’s progress in a patriarchal society. Hopefully stories like this will inform women going forward and further reinforce contemporary societal norms.
Publisher’s blurb
Alternating between 1961 and 1973, The Hollow Girl is the stunning new literary suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Silent Listener.
HARROWFORD HALL
A safe haven for lost girls? Or a breeding ground for revenge?
It’s 1973 and Detective Sergeant Eleanor Smith is finally assigned her first homicide case. A woman’s body has been discovered at Harrowford Hall, a home for unmarried mothers deep in the Victorian countryside.
Led by the formidable Mrs Montague, Harrowford has for decades sold itself as a refuge for ‘girls in crisis’ – like fourteen-year-old Jane McEvoy, who has no idea of how she got pregnant. And Marilyn Pollard, a scared, angry teenager desperate to escape.
But when Detective Smith arrives at the once-grand gothic mansion, she finds it all but deserted. What’s more, the home’s overgrown graveyard suggests the apparent poisoning of Nurse Chapman is not Harrowford’s first suspicious death .