The butterfly women by Madeleine Cleary

In 1863, in Melbourne, there are not many options for a woman to make a living: servant, washerwoman, butcher’s assistant . . . as long as there is no NINA notice, 'No Irish Need Apply'. Women in the slums of the Little Lon district live in poverty often resorting to theft to survive. So when young Irish woman Johanna is offered work at Madame Laurent’s brothel Papillon, it is the chance to leave the grimy world of drudgery and enter a place of silks and satins, and laughter.

Madeleine Cleary has thoroughly researched the lives of people in the brothel district between Lonsdale Street and Little Lonsdale Street, after discovering a ‘notorious’ Cleary in her ancestry. Her novel revolves around three women, of different station: Catherine Laurent, the brothel owner, Johanna, a ‘dressed lady’, and Harriett, an aspiring journalist and sister to the magistrate William Gardiner. Their lives intersect as a killer roams the district.

Cleary’s novel is a murder mystery; the Butcher of Melbourne is reminiscent of Jack the Ripper of London, a serial killer who preyed on the prostitutes of the Whitechapel area. The Butcher, so named because of his skill with the knife, is accompanied by a clicking sound, and leaves his victims clean and well gowned, apart from the slash across their necks.

Our suspicions are aroused as to the killer’s identity early in the piece, but uncertainty keeps the reader absorbed as the chapters alternate between the stories of the three women. There is another marvellous woman, Mary, a woman who dons her husband’s constable uniform and patrols the dark backstreets. If you think this too far-fetched, amazingly truth is stranger than fiction, for Cleary discovered in the archives there actually was a woman dressed in her husband’s uniform, policing his beat. It is Mary who watches over the community and comes closest to discovering the murderer.

Having recently read Outrageous Fortunes (2025) a non-fiction account of a writer and female journalist of this period, the story of Harriett Gardiner also has the ring of authenticity, as a woman trying to carve a career in journalism, daring to write about the underworld of Melbourne society.

Madeleine Cleary is to be commended for bringing her research of the period and crafting a gripping tale that is situated in a historical reality that may be unfamiliar to many. It’s a thriller, and an informative insight into life in early Melbourne.

Themes: Serial killer, Murder, Prostitution, Women, Melbourne.

Helen Eddy