The Locksmith's Daughter: A Novel

Mallory Bright, when first met, is just returned home to her family, in disgrace. Having had her head turned by a scoundrel and eloping for a marriage that wasn’t, she’d disgraced herself and tossed over a solid offer from a young man soon to become a lawyer. Now, she’s guilty, saddened, and a shadow of her former self: removed from the convivial relationship with the apprentices and staff of the house, a constant (yet ongoing) trial for her mother, and not comfortable or feeling particularly welcomed in the workshops of the locksmith. A place she spent many hours during childhood learning to pick locks designed to keep unwelcome eyes from the contents they protected. In fact, even for a middle-class craftsman’s home, Mallory was vastly different. Educated in the classics, languages, math and discussing politics, her best friend a young actor and playwright who was her constant companion, the fact that she was a woman, subject to the whims of the men and society that dictated her opportunities. But, her return home after being beaten, abused and generally treated less well than one would a pig, set her on a course that would intimately weave her own skills, her mother’s refusal to forego her catholic beliefs, and her sex into the future of the country and monarch, as she came to work for Walsingham, principal secretary and spymaster for Queen Elizabeth, a man who collected information about all in the realm, with an almost fanatical zeal to rout out Catholicism, all couched under the auspices of the faith and its followers being traitorous and treacherous to the Queen. Here is where Malory truly grows and shows that limitations should simply be based in ability and not with some other nebulous standard of faith, appearance or sex, she is used by Walsingham to gather and report on information, usually to do with the “Catholic Threat”, she’s mesmerized and thirsty for the positive feedback and attention received, all things long denied her in the past few years. Skiled as a lockpick, with a familiarity in the tricks, booby-traps and construction of locks, each becoming ever-more intricate as the secrets they keep safe are more complex or dangerous to their owners. But, an awakening comes to Mallory as she sees the aftermath of the secrets she’s helped to unlock: and her own questions start to arrive: from personal relationships and her mother’s unwillingness to shed her papist ways to her best friend Caleb’s dancing with acceptable and not with a very mercurial Queen who takes affront quickly, served by one who seems to see threats in every corner. When the tides turn yet again, and her loyalties to family and country are tested, it’s glorious to see how she maneuvers through the dangers, taking the largest chances possible, to extricate herself from the grips of the fervor that inflames the crown. Nothing could please this history geek more than another story with a heroine, flawed yet brave, determined and clever, to work in the seediest and most treacherous place of all – the machinations around Queen Elizabeth and her court – with the threats (real and imagined) to the crown, one without clear heir, the ongoing purge of Catholicism started with her father’s (Henry VIII) schism from Rome, and the customs, descriptions, and even quick mentions of court and courtiers – Brooks has written a story that is gripping intelligent, and hopeful, even when things seem darkest. I love history and historic fiction, and the research, characters and the times just come alive in this story, and had me glued to each page and moment: smart fiction that engages and delights, perfect for that ‘sense’ of late 16th century England and the people who built lives and survived the changing tides. I received an eARC copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.