The Midwife - Tricia Cresswell

AUTHOR: Tricia Cresswell

GENRE: Historical Fiction

RATING: 2.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: Great in history, okay in mystery. As a debut novel, this aims high but gets mixed results.

Story:

Northumberland, 1838. After a storm, a woman is found naked near the high moor by a local villager. The woman has no memory of who she is or where she came from. But she somehow knows how to act as a midwife, dress up wounds, and even speaks French. With no signs of her memory returning, she settles in the village, going by Joanna (the name given to her by the fellow who found her), and tries to rebuild her life using the skills she remembers. But will she ever be content when she feels so lost about her past?

London 1841. Dr. Borthwick is making a name as a physician and accoucheur (a male midwife), though he is careful to always visit expectant mothers with his female midwife assistant, Mrs. Bates. His official clientele comes from the upper echelons of society, but he doesn’t shy away from volunteering with the darkest and poorest slums of Devil's Acre. However, one of his competitors is determined to ruin his name with various allegations. With a dark secret in his past, will Dr. Borthwick be able to survive the character assassination?

How the two stories are connected to each other is quite intelligently written, especially for a debut writer. I was able to guess the connection very early into the narrative, probably because I have recently read two books using the same trope. Despite this, I enjoyed how the author managed to keep the two timelines and the two characters distinct while steadily moving towards each other.

The historical medical glimpses provided by the book are extremely well written and enlightening. This part of the content offers a look into pregnancies of that time period both for the high class and the poor. But after a while, the medical scenes become monotonous, though the patient’s familial situation and complications are almost always distinct. (Well, except for the fact that most of them are pregnant.) Where the content triumphs is in the spotlight it shines on the attitudes of the society towards women in medicine, and even towards a male midwife, both of which come out strongly.

There are no convoluted twists in the plot or needless flourishes in the writing to reduce your pace. In spite of this, the book feels very slow because there's nothing much happening for a great part. In many chapters, all you see is pregnancy-related scenes with only the complications changing. The story feels almost episodic at such times.

The book started off excellently for me. I enjoyed the development in both the narratives in the first quarter. However, once things start slowing down and become repetitive, I found my attention floating away from the story, but I still was curious about the resolution. The last quarter is where the book fails miserably.

The book could have done with better developmental editing, especially in the second half. The book is written in 3rd person, then it suddenly shifts into 1st person after about 75%, and then goes back into 3rd person towards the end. The ending is abrupt and honestly, a huge letdown. After all the build-up about Joanne’s memory loss for the whole novel, it was disheartening to see everything explained in just a few paragraphs. The epilogue was an even bigger bummer. And a genuine query: why was she naked when she was found? This isn’t addressed at all. Was it just some sort of clickbait to make readers curious about the character?

A minor issue: There are way too many secondary characters, and things get a bit confusing at times. (Thank God for the Search feature on eReaders; a poor memory needs all the support it can get.)

Overall, I loved the historical aspects of the book. Its reflection on Victorian society, poverty and affluence, health conditions, women's rights and homosexual rights is excellently depicted. Where it falls short of expectations is in not developing and tying up the mystery about Joanna’s identity in a better way. The research of the author is impressive. All that is needed is a bit of finetuning in building up the plot to a satisfactory climax.

It will still be a decent read for historical fiction lovers, especially if you want a detailed look at the medical setup of the 1830s-1840s period.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Mantle, and NetGalley for the ARC of “The Midwife”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.