Dangerous Women

Critics Review

• Beautifully written, Hope Adams has woven together an epic sea voyage with an intriguing murder mystery to make an unputdownable read

  Katie Fforde

• A gorgeous and compelling story with vibrant characters. I was fascinated by the novel’s inspiration and the real life story of the Rajah Quilt

  Rachel Hore

• An intriguing murder-mystery, skilfully written and bursting with colour and life

  author of Magpie Lane

• A fabulous book with a fascinating premise. A murder mystery drives the story, but it’s the characters who keep you entranced as, in the confined space of a long sea voyage, these feisty inventive women negotiate each other and their new world. I loved it

  Dinah Jefferies

• A fascinating prose patchwork of the women’s lives, stitched together by a twisting murder mystery. Engrossing and deeply satisfying – over the course of the journey we learn about the desperate lives of these women, many guilty only of petty crimes

  The Times

• I so enjoyed this. It evokes an era when justice was cruel, but also how the creation of something like a quilt gave hope and substance to existence. A terrific read

  Elizabeth Buchan

• Dazzling. Adams takes the fascination history of a convict ship and brings it to life in a captivating story filled with intrigue and dark secrets. An immensely satisfying tale of guilt, innocent and second chances

  author of The Au Pair

• Well-written, engaging and thoroughly compelling. I love it when forgotten histories are brought to light, and touch the reader so that they immediately want to know more

  Elizabeth Chadwick

• A gripping exploration of female solidarity in a time of crisis and claustrophobia. Hope Adams sets the grubby injustices of a misogynistic legal system against the beauty of creating a work of art and, through that art, stitching together an unlikely community

  Caroline Lea, author of The Glass Woman

• Hope Adams has skilfully patched a murder mystery into a historical event . . . Masterful plotting, well-drawn characters, and a plausible balance of despair for what was left behind and optimism for what lies ahead add up to an immensely satisfying read

  Guardian

• Adams disguises a social-history lesson on women’s rights as a gripping period drama and we’re here for it

  Cosmopolitan

• A fabulous, page-turning novel that kept me gripped. Bringing together murder, convicts and patchwork quilting – all aboard a ship bound for Australia – it’s impossible not to become engaged with these women and their individual plights – especially once everyone becomes a suspect

  author of The Observations

• A ship of convict women – all with their secrets – on the way to a new life in a new land, but facing danger all the way – this is a locked room mystery to end all locked room mysteries!

  author of The Windsor Knot

• A fine story of suspense, sisterhood and society, reflecting the harshness of women’s lives and their desperation to survive in a world that has scant regard for their wellbeing

  Daily Mail

• A page-turning murder mystery and a richly-drawn tale of women caught up in a male-dominated world, hoping for a better life. Descriptions of the poorer class of women in Victorian England are moving and evocative, the period details terrifically well-researched. I felt I was on that transport ship with those women, facing the storms and living their joys and sorrows

  Carol Drinkwater

• Combines historical fiction with tremendously gripping entertainment. Who on a ship of convicted women sailing from London to Tasmania is a murderer?

  author of The Golden Rule

• A truly engrossing historical ‘locked room’ thriller

  Essie Fox

• A must-read for lovers of fearless historical fiction, and an examination of the shocking treatment of women in our not-too distant past

  author of The Deep

• Nerves fray, alliances form, and love blooms in this fast paced, well-written novel. This is a great page-turner!

  Mystery and Suspense Magazine

• A historical episode artfully adapted in a tale that offers glimmers of hope for women discarded by society

  Kirkus

• Wonderful, evocative, moving and suspenseful

  author of On Hampstead Heath

• A vivid, cleverly-crafted mystery that will keep the reader turning the pages

  bestselling author of Letters from the Past

• It’s a fantastically exciting story, and a wonderful novel. There is so much more going on, on the Rajah, in this unity of women, than a simple love story

  Antonia Honeywell

• Transforms an actual 19th-century sea voyage of female convicts into a striking drama. The ship’s young matron chooses a group to sew a presentation quilt, but near their destination, someone stabs one of the quilters. Evocative sketches of those on board reveal the realities of poor women’s lives – readers will be rewarded

  Publisher's Weekly

• A murder mystery with a great twist at the end . . . Gripping

  i

• Dangerous Women is a successful blend of two genres: a historical novel, inspired by real events, and a murder mystery with a great twist at the end. By the time I was halfway through I was completely gripped, and couldn’t put it down

  Wendy Cope

• An enthralling narrative . . . lays bare the painful lives of these women, far from their homes and loved ones, and feeling the brutal weight of the law

  Northern Life Magazine

• This atmospheric narrative excels in its depiction of the relationship between female prisoners – largely petty criminals – and the tragic backstories that have brought them together

  Mail on Sunday

• Packed with atmosphere . . . a terrific read

  Choice Magazine 'Book of the Month'

• A very fine novel – and, like the quilt it celebrates, a work of love

  Mick Herron

• Utterly compelling and as finely wrought as the patchwork quilt that inspired the story

  author of the bestselling The Last Hours

• Fascinating. Gives women without one a voice – a storming read

  Helena Pielichaty

• A compelling, immersive book that deftly weaves its beauty and pathos. I’m still thinking about it

  Hilary McKay

• An enthralling story, inspired by true events

  Best

• A secret murder on a convict ship transporting women to Australia in 1841 . . . this is an intriguing story, with its root embedded in facts

  Andrew Taylor

• Intriguing . . . [Hope Adams] can stitch a great story

  Jewish Chronicle

• In vivid detail, Hope Adams illuminates life in convict quarters on a stinking, storm-soaked ship, and delves into the lives of individual women and the small tragedies that have condemned them to be sent far away, with little hope of return

  Jewish Chronicle

• A well-paced page-turner illuminating a forgotten story that reminds us how far we have come

  Jewish Chronicle

• Pulls you into the heart of its story, while celebrating redemption, rehabilitation and the good in people. All set to the backdrop of a truly fascinating slice of history

  Phase Eight Book Club

• Historical events and characters are cleverly blended into a thought-provoking tale

  Candis

• Adams disguises a social-history lesson on women’s rights as a gripping period drama

  Cosmopolitan