I read The Cartographer’s Secret by Tea Cooper for a library book club. I was not familiar with Cooper or her other novels. The Cartographer’s Secret is told in two parts, 1880 and 1911 although the majority of the story takes place in 1911.
In 1880, Evie Ludgrove, an artist, loves to draw the plants she finds on her family’s property and beyond. She is also talented at drawing maps with great accuracy. Her father is obsessed with the Australian explorer, Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt. Her father planned to go on an exploratory trip with Leichhardt, but he suffered a terrible accident and lost one of his legs. Later, Dr. Leichhardt and his whole party disappeared.
Evie’s father leaves the family estate with Miriam, Evie’s older sister, to go to Sydney. He is taking Miriam to marry a businessman in Sydney. Mr. Ludgrove asks Evie to take his journal and notes about Leichhardt into some kind of order because he wants the two of them to write a book about Leichhardt, a three-volume work, in fact. Then Evie sees a notice that one could receive a thousand-pound reward if the person could prove how, where, and why Leichhardt disappeared. That quest leads Evie into danger and her eventual disappearance.
Thirty-four years later in 1911, Lettie Rawlings, Evie’s great-niece, sets out on her own journey. Lettie is Miriam’s daughter; she is grieving the death of her dear brother. Lettie takes her brother’s car which he has taught her to drive and how to maintain. Lettie goes to the Ludgrove estate, which belonged to her paternal grandfather. There, she is reunited with her great-aunt Olivia, from whom Lettie’s family has been estranged for all of Lettie’s life.
I wish Cooper had included a family tree in the beginning of the story. That would have been useful in sorting out the relationships among the family members.
Lettie is uncertain of her welcome when she arrives at Olivia’s home. Once there, though, Olivia welcomes Lettie. Olivia tells Lettie about Evie and her disappearance. Miriam, Lettie’s mother, always told Lettie that Evie died in childhood. Lettie learns that is not true; Evie was 18 at the time of her disappearance and apparent death. Lettie also learns about Evie’s quest to find information about Leichhardt’s disappearance.
I was completely unfamiliar with this part of Australian history. Leichhardt was a real explorer who did disappear with his whole party of explorers. Many people over the years have tried to discover what really happened to the explorers without success. Cooper has taken the factual story and woven a fictional family into the story.
For book clubs, the members will find much to discuss, especially about family relationships and old feuds that linger.
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