But he can also see a solution.Īt first glance, the word most people would use to describe this book is ‘silly’ – opening on a murder mystery scene with a hedgehog victim. On a vital mission to bring those responsible to justice, prevent further murder and save a species, he uncovers a story full of twists, turns and uncomfortable truths about the trade-offs that exist between humans and wildlife. Magnifying glass in hand, Tom Moorhouse investigates the evidence. And yet their numbers are estimated to have halved in less than twenty years. ? Who could possibly have it in for a hedgehog? In poll after poll they come out top as our favourite mammal. So which one of them is responsible for this crime – and for the disappearance of many many thousands of hedgehogs in recent decades?Is it the car driver, the badger, the farmer, the gardener. And all of those gathered around the corpse are suspect.

Small, with a snouty head and covered with spines, it is unquestionably dead before its time. This is historical fiction at its finest – intriguing, world-bending, and page-turning.Ī body lies motionless on the ground. Louisa Treger brings the horrors Nellie witnessed to life with her pacy, riveting storytelling. Madwoman weaves the story of the world’s first female investigative journalist, Nellie Bly.īased on a true story, we follow Nellie faking insanity to get admitted into an asylum so that she can write her exposé with a first-hand account of the conditions inside. She entered the asylum of her own free will – but will she ever get out?Īn extraordinary portrait of a woman way ahead of her time, Madwoman is the story of a quest for the truth that changed the world. But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors, governed by a harshness and cruelty she could never have imagined.Ĭold, isolated and starving, her days of terror reawaken the traumatic events of her childhood. There, she will work undercover to document – and expose – the wretched conditions faced by the patients. But life in the city is tougher than she imagined.ĭown to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum that looms on Blackwell’s Island.

In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take.

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