Dare the Dark by Bruce Mitchell Book Review

In Dare the Dark, Bruce Mitchell has set aside his Thornton family saga for the time being to venture into the historical mystery genre.

Synopsis

Sydney, January 1879.

A body with its eye hacked out is found in a suburban street, and a cryptic note promises more. Detectives Kennedy and Walsh scour the city for a crazed killer dubbed ‘Doctor Hacksaw’ by the press.

A female suffrage march turns ugly and Kennedy’s wife Mary defends three accused women in a courtroom drama. Walsh’s partner Victoria Chen has information on a crime boss that could get her killed.

Lives spiral out of control as the body count

Breaking Lucky by Bruce Mitchell Book Review

Synopsis

Danny ‘Lucky’ Thornton cursed his middle name. Born in 1895, asthma almost killed him when he was four, but he survived to be among the first volunteer lifeguards on Sydney’s Coogee Beach. Danny’s sister Cath dreamed of becoming a doctor at a time when they told women to ‘know their place’. She didn’t listen, and broke through the walls of prejudice to graduate from Sydney University the only woman in her class.

Danny came home from the war with a crippling wound and a shattered mind. Cath stared down a gun barrel in a night of terror and fell in love with a ‘Chinaman’ at the

Widow's Lace by Lelita Baldock Book Review - Blog Tour

Publication Date: 23 March 2020
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 242
Genre: Historical Fiction / Mystery

Synopsis

A hundred year old mystery, the widow left behind, a fallen soldier, the abandoned fiancée, an unnamed body and the young student determined to find the truth.

In 1886 famous English poet Edward Barrington moves from Derbyshire, England to a farm on the Finniss River, in South Australia. Two years later he disappears.

25 years later Archie Hargraves abandons his

Stars Over the Southern Ocean by J.H. Fletcher Book Review

Synopsis

With her home and freedom on the line, will her family force her to leave it all behind?

1937 - Seventeen year old Marina Fairbrother has lived in the small logging town of Mole Creek, Tasmania, her whole life. When she meets Jory Trevelyan, she is intrigued by the young man with the strange name and his tales of the west coast. Stories of wild winds and a tumultuous sea leave her hungering for a freedom she hadn't realised she lacked.

1993 - After a terminal diagnosis, Marina knows there is only one place she wants to spend her remaining days. The remote coastal property of Noamunga has been her

The Road to Ironbark by Kaye Dobbie Book Review

Synopsis

1874, The Victorian Goldfields

In the town of Ironbark, Aurora Scott faces ruin as the railways supplant the Cobb & Co coach line, the lifeline of her hotel. Aurora is no stranger to adversity; the formidable publican has pulled herself from a murky past to build a respectable life in Ironbark. But when bushrangers storm the hotel, taking hostages as leverage for the Starburst Mine's payroll, Aurora has more trouble on her hands than she can handle.

This is no random act, but a complex scheme of revenge. The gang turn on each other. Shots ring out. And when the dust settles, the

The House on Boundary Street by Tea Cooper Book Review

Synopsis

In the aftermath of World War I, Sydney is no place for the fainthearted. Sly grog shops thrive, the cocaine trade flourishes and brothels abound. Into this big dark city comes fresh-faced country girl, Dolly Bowman, ready to risk everything in pursuit of her dreams. After all it's the 1920s - time to turn her back on her terrible childhood and search for her future.

Cynthia Burton's life changes irrevocably the day she steps over the threshold of the house on Boundary Street. Determined to survive the only way she can, she breaks into the world of money and matinee idols in order to fulfil a promise she made and now there's no

BOOK REVIEW: Shepherd by Catherine Jinks

Synopsis

My father trained me to silence the way he trained his dogs, with food and a cane. Speech, he said, was poison. It scared the game, alerted the gamekeepers and betrayed your friends and family.

Tom Clay was a poacher back in Suffolk. He was twelve when he was caught, tried and transported to New South Wales.

Now, assigned to a shepherds’ hut out west, he is a boy among violent men. He keeps his counsel and watches over his sheep; he steers clear of blowhards

BOOK REVIEW: Finding Eliza by Heather Whitford Roche

Synopsis

Everything Knill thought he knew was false. Now he must search for where he belongs...

1921. Central Victoria.

Knill McMillan’s life is perfectly ordinary: a country upbringing, caring parents, cousins who are his best mates. He is a young man with the world before him.

But he’s always had the sense he doesn’t quite fit in, doesn’t quite belong. And then one night he is brutally beaten. As he lies bleeding on the ground his attacker calls him something that he is unable to get out of his

CAN'T-WAIT WEDNESDAY: I can't wait for Wild by Nathan Besser

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

CAN'T-WAIT WEDNESDAY: I can't wait for The Unforgiving City by Maggie Joel

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

CAN'T-WAIT WEDNESDAY: I Can't Wait for White Sands of Summer by J.H. Fletcher

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

BOOK REVIEW: Napoleon's Australia: The Incredible Story of Bonaparte's Secret Plan to Invade Australia by Terry Smyth

Synopsis (From the back cover)

In the northern winter of 1814, a French armada set sail for New South Wales. The Armada’s mission was the invasion of Sydney, and its inspiration and its fate were interwoven with one of history’s greatest love stories – Napoleon and Josephine.

The Empress Josephine was fascinated by all things Australian. In the gardens of her grand estate, Malmaison, she kept kangaroos, emus, black swans and other Australian animals, along with hundreds of native plants brought back by French explorers in peacetime. And even when war raged between

BOOK REVIEW: Captain Cook's Apprentice by Anthony Hill

In August 1768 His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, with Lieutenant James Cook as its captain, departed from Plymouth, England, primarily to observe the Transit of Venus from Tahiti.

In 2018, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of this, one of the greatest voyages of discovery ever made, Penguin Books released a new edition of Anthony Hill's 2008 novel, Captain Cook's Apprentice

Synopsis (From the back cover)

The enthralling story of Captain Cook's voyage to Australia, as seen through the eager eyes of a cabin

Book Review: We That Are Left by Lisa Bigelow

Many Australians and naval historians know of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of HMAS Sydney during World War II and the discovery of its wreckage which made headline news in 2008.

In her debut novel, Lisa Bigelow draws on her family's history to tell the story of Mae, the wife of a naval engineer aboard the HMAS Sydney, and Grace, an aspiring female reporter whose boyfriend is posted to Singapore to cover the war there.

Synopsis

Melbourne, 1941. Headstrong young Mae meets and falls head over heels in love with Harry Parker, a

Book Review: The Power Game by Meg and Tom Keneally

The Power Game is the third book in the crime series set in Colonial Australia by daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Kenneally.

Synopsis

When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Dieman’s Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner. But the victim’s history of blackmail prompts Monsarrat to look further afield – and not everyone is happy . . .

In this, the third in the Monsarrat series, Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs

Book Review: Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband by Barbara Toner

A shortage of men due to the First World War and the flu pandemic, and the discrimination against women, is the backdrop of Barbara Toner's latest novel.

Set in a small country town in New South Wales, Australia, this wonderfully entertaining narrative comments on the social and political aspects of the time as men return from the war to resume their lives and the impact this has on the female population.

Synopsis

When Adelaide Nightingale, Louisa Worthington, Maggie O'Connell and Pearl McLeary threw caution to the winds in the most brazen way imaginable,

Book Review: Perseverance: Book Two of the Garth Trilogy by L.F.McDermott

Perseverance continues the story of two convict families, the Garths and their friends, the Belletts, which began in Of Angels and Eagles. It spans the years 1809-1864 and focuses on the next generation, primarily James Garth and Mary Belletts.

When the Government decides to close the penal settlement of Norfolk Island, the two families are forced to leave and resettle in Van Diemen's Land.

Perseverance opens with the Belletts arriving in Hobart Town to take up their land grants and to be reunited with the Garths.

Book Review: The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Keneally

The Unmourned is the second book in the crime series set in colonial Australia from daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Keneally.

I enjoyed their first collaboration, The Soldier’s Curse, which takes place in Port Macquarie, a penal settlement for reoffenders, and introduced Mrs. Mulrooney, an Irish housekeeper, and Hugh Monsarrat, an English gentleman convict.

In The Unmourned, Monsarrat, with his ticket of leave regained, is in Parramatta, with Mrs. Mulrooney, now employed as his housekeeper and unofficial assistant.

Book Review: Daughter of Mine by Fiona Lowe

A family secret and the setting, Victoria's Western District, were the two things that drew me to this novel, in a genre I don't usually read. While the opening chapters didn’t pull me in immediately, I’m glad I persevered as this turned out to be a great family drama with a very satisfactory conclusion.

Synopsis

When your world falls apart the only person you can depend on is your sister. The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria's Western District -- but could a long-held secret threaten their family? Harriett Chirnwell has a

Book Review: Wild Island by Jennifer Livett

Wild Island, influenced by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, asks the reader to forget the outcome of Jane Eyre and to imagine another ending where Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester didn't marry, and his wife, Bertha, is still alive ...

Harriet Adair, a widow, artist and nurse, is accompanying Anna Rochester (Bertha), Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester to Tasmania (or Van Diemen’s Land as it was known at the time the novel is set) in search of a lost relative.

The decline of Edward Rochester’s health part way into the voyage results in his and Jane Eyre’s transfer