The Lives of Diamond Bessie

This is a ghost story that will make you more sad than scared, but Hadlock masters theme. It's a little flat at times and I wish there was more to it, but I still enjoyed following Annie's story and what ended up evolving...and how Bessie came about.

I had never heard of the historical Diamond Bessie. I had to go look her up!

This fictionalized account of her life is fascinating. Annie Moore finds herself in the family way after a young man sweet-talks her into going further than was proper for an unwed girl. The young man wants nothing to do with her once he learns she's pregnant, and, betrayed, she is packed off to a convent. There she is to redeem her soul by God's grace and harsh treatment at the hands of the nuns. When the nuns take her baby, Annie determines that she won't stay there. She flees the convent, and ends up taking employment as a demi-mondaine – a prostitute to a generally higher class of clientele.

When Annie – or Bessie, as she is now known – meets Abe Rothschild, spendthrift heir to the Rothschild diamond fortune, she falls hard for him. He apparently falls hard for her, too, but harder for her jewels, the diamonds with which she is identified. Their relationship is up and down, but when he finally proposes to her, Bessie hopes she can leave her working life behind her. But Abe, still more interested in her assets than Bessie herself, leaves her dead in Jefferson, Texas, far from home.

My heart just broke for Annie/Bessie. She made the best of the bad hand she was dealt in just about the only way a “loose woman” could in her era. What she'd given away for love, she now sold for profit. She knew what waited when she lost her youth and beauty, and it was nothing good. She hoped that her marriage to Abe would be her salvation, but it was the end of her instead.

And Bessie's viewpoint after her earthly life ends is almost the more intriguing part of the book. From a Christian perspective, I don't believe spirits linger here, seeking to finalize unfinished business. But what a thought, that she wanted revenge badly enough not to “go to the light.”

Jefferson, Texas still remembers Bessie to this day. After reading this book and learning of her, I might feel the need to pay a visit to her final resting place the next time I'm in the Lone Star State.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lives of Diamond Bessie by Jody Hadlock was a super entertaining read (I finished it all in one go). A debut novel inspired by the true life story of Annie Moore, aka Diamond Bessie. A young Irish girl in America, who was forced into prostitution in the 1860s. I found it to be well written and well paced. The plot was engaging and kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed the twist halfway through and the added bit of supernatural. There were a couple of minor issues I had. I thought the first half of the book was stronger in the storytelling, and I wasn't a fan of the ending and that a certain character didn't get their comeuppance. Overall, though, this was a strong debut for this author and I look forward to seeing what she has up her sleeve next.

ARC Via NetGalley