Robin Hood is retold in a historical-cum-steampunk milieu in
this entertaining book.
Penelope Moser is the Post Mistress in Fortuna. She
has a dream of starting a library but though she has some books, there are no
readers. Penelope has been travelling from city to city with her father who is
busy opening banks. Fortuna is in the Wild West and her eastern sensibilities
are outraged at the lawlessness. The sheriff of Fortuna, Cullen Wiley, a
man as lawless as they come, is her fiancé. Though not happy with her lot, Penelope
is resigned to be the ‘little woman’. The town is in a upheaval because The
Persephone Star, vehicle of the infamous outlaw, Mirage Currier,
has been sighted. While the Star is just hanging around in the sky, everyone
has the jitters. Before Penelope came to Fortuna and became the postmistress,
there had been an ‘incident’ involving the outlaws of The Persephone Star
and Wiley. Since no one tells Penelope what happened, she goes hunting for
information and finds that at that time all the outlaws had been arrested and
all but one were released. Young Corinna Currier was found guilty of shooting the
mayor and sentenced to death. Except that the outlaws hired one lawyer after
another and the hanging has been postponed until now. Penelope however finds
some information that doesn’t quite fit into the claims by eyewitnesses, Wiley and
his second, Lewis. Before she can explore any further, she is kidnapped by the
outlaws.
The beginning of the book has excellent details and Penelope
is instantly likeable. Sullivan writes about the expectations from women and
the treatment meted out to them throughout the book without really focussing on
it but weaving it into the story excellently. Not a lot has changed from the
author’s imagined past to today. The merry band of female outlaws are all easy
to warm up to and each had a defined personality. The end is a little hurried and
tied up rather too neatly, but for a novella, it is quite okay. The pacing is
spot-on and at no point did our interest drop. Though this is not a YA novel,
it feels like one and the ship has a very Neverland feel to it.
This is a short entertainer which can be completed in one
sitting to clear the mind between more angsty or heavier reads.
⭐⭐⭐☆★
