This week I'm again excited about an upcoming release from an Australian author. I enjoyed Katherine Kovacic's debut novel The Portrait of Molly Dean, which combined art with a 70-year old unsolved murder. This was also the first book in her Alex Clayton Art Mystery series. Last year saw the release of the second book in the series, Painting in the Shadows, which I've yet to read. Now, there is to be a third, coming out in March 2020, The Shifting Landscape. What especially excites me about this book is that it is set in the area in which I live, though, I regret, not on a historic sheep station.
Art dealer Alex Clayton travels to Victoria's Western District to value the McMillan family's collection. At their historic sheep station, she finds an important and previously unknown colonial painting - and a family fraught with tension. There are arguments about the future of the property and its place in an ancient and highly significant indigenous landscape.
When the family patriarch dies under mysterious circumstances and the painting is stolen, Alex decides to leave; then a toddler disappears and Alex's faithful dog Hogarth goes missing. With fears rising for the safety of both child and hound, Alex and her best friend John, who has been drawn into the mystery, join searchers scouring the countryside. But her attempts to unravel the McMillan family secrets have put Alex in danger, and she's not the only one.
Will the killer claim another victim? Or will the landscape reveal its mysteries to Alex in time?
Release Date: March, 2020
Publisher: Bonnier Echo
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
It sounds really good. Hope you get to enjoy it soon.
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Oooh! This sounds interesting! Great pick!
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Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog
Thank you!
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