The Nature of Fragile Things

Trigger warnings: miscarriage, murder, natural disaster, terminal illness, spousal abuse, mail-order bride, gold diggers, polygamy, loss of a home

Sophie moves from New York City to California before the San Francisco earthquake.

Irish immigrant Sophie Whalen leads an awful life in her New York City tenement. She decides to answer an ad in the paper that a widower placed looking for a wife and mother to his young girl. Sophie may never have children of her own, so she leaves NYC for California.

Sophie Hocking is content with her new life where she is warm, fed, and can provide for stepdaughter Katherine, who they call Kat. Sophie doesn't love her husband Martin, who is often away for business.

On the night before the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a pregnant woman shows up at her door. Her husband is a business contact of Martin's, and she thinks Sophie can help locate the missing man.

The earthquake strikes and the pregnant woman goes into labor. The two women must stay together to help each other survive the disaster. In their search for truth, they discover a third woman whose life will become intertwined with theirs.

The novel begins with readings of a police report in which Sophie Hocking is being interviewed, so the reader knows something will eventually go wrong. The story unfolds at a pleasant pace with police interviews woven in between chapters.

Alana Kerr Collins is a good narrator with a slight Irish accent. Her reading sounds American, although she peppers Irish vowels throughout. Jason Culp reads the police reports interspersed throughout the novel but has to read "question" and "answer" between the dialogue which is distracting.

This novel is so much more than I expected from the brief description I read before beginning. The result was a pleasant surprise -- a women's fiction title that explores complicated relationships and several mysteries about the connections between the women. The twists and turns in the story keep coming until the very end.

Highly recommended for fans of women's fiction, women's historical fiction, and historical mysteries.

Susan Meissner is a bestselling historical fiction author. She lives in California.

Publisher: Berkley (print); Penguin Audio

Narrator: Alana Kerr Collins & Jason Culp

Running Time: 10 hours, 39 minutes

Length: 384 pages

Release Date: February 2, 2021

I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.