Review of THE BLACK THREAD from the Historical Novel Society

Tina Huckle was the Historical Novel Society's reviewer of THE BLACK THREAD.

THE BLACK THREAD by Margaret Muir is an enchanting historical novel, well written with excellent local knowledge. It is a story based around the life of the mills and canal life around the turn of the century in hard working class Victorian Leeds and Liverpool. The main character, Amy Dodd, draws you into her life with the author’s excellent description and colourful narrative. Amos Dodd, Amy’s cruel father portrays a believable dark character and yet you cannot help but feel his pain and troubles.

An idealistic father he is not, and the story is full of shocking findings and clever twists. It is, I am sure, a true depiction of canal life in the Victorian age and has good historical content. The ending certainly leads itself to another book – which does, however, leave the reader a little disappointed.

Personally, the cover of the edition I was reviewing did not encourage me to pick this book up initially, which is a shame as on a shelf in a bookstore it is possible it could get over-looked, whereas the content inside is highly recommended.


Note: as author, I have tried several covers for this novel.
Here is the cover for the e-book edition ($2.99):
I also find it interesting that Tina has described this as an 'enchanting' historical novel, whereas I saw it as rather dark, Gothic and dramatic. We certainly all read and see things differently and I thank her for her comments.