The Madman’s Daughter

Sheperd, Megan. The Madman’s Daughter. 2013. 420p. ISBN 978-0-06-212802-7. FIC SHE on the library shelves.

About a decade ago, Juliet’s father was accused of conducting gruesome vivisection experiments on animals. Shunned by society and one step ahead of the law, he disappeared and was never heard of again. Juliet and her mother were abandoned and had to fend for themselves. The fall from upper middle class to indigent forced Juliet’s mother into a “kept woman” role until her death of consumption. Since then, Juliet has worked as a maid at King’s College, hoping to save enough money to escape her current situation.

One evening she comes upon a vivisection performed by some of the students in the middle of the night. She puts an end to it by killing the rabbit, but discovers that the students had been inspired by an old piece of paper they had discovered. On it were some of her father’s diagrams and notes. She finds out where the students got the note, and discovers that Montgomery is in London.

A boy only a year older than she, Montgomery was a servant in their household prior to her father’s scandalous experiments, and he disappeared with him. Ten years later, Montgomery looks like a man, not the little boy that Juliet had been in love with, but the attraction is still there. Eventually Montgomery confesses that he is in London to purchase supplies for her father, who is on a remote island in the Pacific. Dr. Moreau is still experimenting on the island, and Juliet wonders if he did go mad or if it were only the rumors spread by those who opposed him. How could he simply abandon her mother and herself, Juliet wonders? Accompanied by Baltazar, one of the island’s deformed resident, Montgomery is happy to see Juliet but refuses to let her come with them.

Juliet is forced to flee, however, when she stabs a doctor who tried to take advantage of her. Montgomery has no choice but to take her on the boat over to the island. During the voyage, they rescue a shipwrecked man called Edward. With a dark past, Edward is more than he seems, but Juliet begins to fall for him too. Will she discover what dark secrets her fathers have been working on all of these years? Has he gone truly mad? Does he still care about her? Does Montgomery? Edward? And, most of all, does her father’s madness run in her veins?