Like a thousand suns...: Book Review!!! Lucie Dumas by Katherine Mezzacappa

Publication Date: March 30th, 2026

Publisher: Stairwell Books

Pages: 278

Genre: Historical Fiction

London, 1871: Lucie Dumas of Lyon has accepted a stipend from her former lover and his wife, on condition that she never returns to France; she will never see her young son again. As the money proves inadequate, Lucie turns to prostitution to live, joining the ranks of countless girls from continental Europe who'd come to London in the hope of work in domestic service.

Escaping a Covent Garden brothel for a Magdalen penitentiary, Lucie finds only another form of incarceration and thus descends to the streets, where she is picked up by the author Samuel Butler, who sets her up in her own establishment and visits her once a week for the next two decades. But for many years she does not even know his name.

Based on true events.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lucie Dumas is one of those books where the voice and the atmosphere feel almost like the same thing. The setting isn’t just background—it quietly shapes how Lucie sees herself and everyone around her.

The London here feels very real, but in a small, contained way. It’s not big or dramatic—it’s rooms, streets, routines. There’s a kind of closeness to everything, like her world never quite opens up. Even when things seem stable, there’s this sense that something’s pressing in—and you can feel that in her relationships too.

Nothing there feels completely settled. Her connection with Monsieur isn’t really romantic in the usual sense—it feels more structured than that, but also uneven in a way that never fully goes away. It all looks calm on the surface, but there’s always something slightly unresolved underneath.

What I found most interesting is Lucie herself. She understands what’s going on—her past, her situation, the people in her life—but that doesn’t mean she can change it. There’s a kind of distance in how she sees things, like she’s aware of the limits around her but still stuck within them.

The story moves between Lyon and London, but it doesn’t build to one big moment. It just unfolds. You see how one part of her life leads into the next without any clear break. There’s no dramatic turning point—just this gradual sense that her options are narrowing.

A lot of the emotional weight comes from what’s left unresolved. Her separation from her son isn’t treated as one big event—it’s just there, in the background, shaping everything else. It gives even the quieter moments more depth.

It’s not a heavy book in an obvious way, but there’s a quiet sadness to it, especially later on. The way time passes, and how her world slowly becomes smaller, is done very subtly, which makes it land more.

It’s definitely more about character than plot. If you like slower, more reflective books, it’s worth it.

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Katherine Mezzacappa

Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but currently lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She wrote The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Histria) and The Maiden of Florence (Fairlight) under her own name, as well as four historical novels (2020-2023) with Zaffre, writing as Katie Hutton. She also has three contemporary novels with Romaunce Books, under the pen name Kate Zarrelli. The Maiden of Florence was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’Association Gold Crown award in 2025 and has also been published in Italian.

Katherine’s short fiction has been published in journals worldwide. She has in addition published academically in the field of 19th century ephemeral illustrated fiction, and in management theory. She has been awarded competitive residencies by the Irish Writers Centre, the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators and (to come) the Latvian Writers House.

Katherine also works as a manuscript assessor and as a reader and judge for an international short story and novel competition. She has in the past been a management consultant, translator, museum curator, library assistant, lecturer in History of Art, sewing machinist and geriatric care assistant. In her spare time she volunteers with a second-hand book charity of which she is a founder member.

She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society, the Irish Writers Centre, the Irish Writers Union, Irish PEN / PEN na hÉireann and the Romantic Novelists Association, and reviews for the Historical Novel Review. She is lead organiser for the Historical Novel Society 2026 Conference in Maynooth, Co. Kildare.

Katherine has a first degree in History of Art from UEA, an M.Litt. in Eng. Lit. from Durham and a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church.