Jessie Burton, Hidden Treasure, Bloomsbury, March 2025, 320 pp., RRP $24.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781526662897
Bo lives with her mum and soldier brother along the Thames. She’s a mudlark, who scours the shoreline for hidden treasures, but when she finds a gem-encrusted jewel, she knows she’s found something special. Her best friend Eddie declares she is rich and all her family’s money troubles will be solved. But Bo decides not to sell the jewel when she meets a boy on the river who tells her if she finds a matching jewel, she will be given back something lost.
What unfolds in the novel demands a lot of suspension of disbelief, and is a little confusing as to why Bo ignores her best friend and her family’s poverty to keep a jewel because of a boy she’s only just met. She is also pursued by an unscrupulous man who insists the jewel is his. He easily and quickly finds Bo but gives up pursing her after only one attempt, even though this jewel could rescue him from impending financial ruin. The setting of the Thames is intriguing and the cover art by Melissa Castrillon is rich and inviting.
Reviewed by Deborah Abela
