When it comes to English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” are probably almost as well-known as Shakespeare. Many students will have been introduced to the “Tales” in school but even new translations of the original old Middle English can remain a challenge and one can be defeated by them. Thus, I approached this new interpretation via the historical fiction route with enthusiasm, that at last someone has taken one of Chaucer’s best-known characters and breathed new life into her in a way that will appeal to modern readers. There is no doubt that this is an admirable and major accomplishment by author Karen Brooks.
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The historical background to the story is full of the base living conditions and all the mud, guts and stink of 14th Century England. For current readers dealing with a modern pandemic, it is sobering to note the number of times the population of that era had to deal with epidemics of the dreaded “Botch” with resignation and fatalism.

A cousin of Chaucer, Eleanor, or the Good Wife of Bath, buries 5 husbands (or so she thinks) and tells her tale of her marriages and other liaisons in a fearless and entertaining way. She is earthy, rash, but kind-hearted, and you can’t help liking her even if some of her actions are not always wise or rational. She demonstrates optimism and determination not to let men rule her life and is a champion of other less-privileged women.
 
It’s always difficult to present an objective opinion on any book that has already garnered numerous five-star reviews in the media and websites so I hate to bring in a but … but the book is an epic on which I nearly gave up several times and it took me weeks to finish in fits and starts. 

The author’s notes are excellent at explaining the moral codes of the era and while I do accept that 12 year old girls were considered old enough to be wives, that domestic violence was almost an expected part of marriage for many and that prostitution was often the only option for those down on their luck and at the mercy of men, all of this can be wearisome after a while.

Also, there are too many secondary characters with similar stories (usually distressing) that makes it difficult to tell one from the other. The five husbands are all unattractive in appearance and/or character and they seem to just serve as backdrop to the Good Wife’s total feminine domination of the story, which is probably the intention.

Brilliant in parts, this novel is frustrating to sum up adequately. It is both good and tiresome and, in that, perhaps reflects the way people might feel about the original overblown tale by Chaucer.


(With many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.)
 
Three-and-a-half stars.
 

Booktopia

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Amazon.co.uk (Kindle edition)

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​There has been a plethora of World War II historical novels in recent years and most of them have similar covers, titles and settings – often featuring England, France or Germany. Unless there is something unusual about the story it can be difficult to remember one from the other, so when I read the synopsis of this one, that it was set in Italy, I looked forward to learning something about one of the less-written-about battle fronts.

Giulia is one of five children, the daughter of a Calabrian farmer, but has ambitions to do something more with her life other than become a wife and mother and work on farms. She yearns to be a herbalist and healer like her grandmother, but her father is set against what he considers to be witch’s work and it is only through the encouragement and connivance of other women that she gets the chance to study at a monastery when she learns about herbs and medicine. Her father, however, is furious and remains determined to marry her off to a suitable husband.

Meanwhile, the clouds of war are forming over Italy as the fascist leader Mussolini seeks to build an empire and aligns himself with Hitler. Giulia’s brother and his friends become soldiers and when her father is also called up, the farm is run by the women left behind. In increasingly dangerous circumstances and struggling with personal loss and tragedy, Giulia is finally able to practise her skills and find true love in the process.

The history is well-researched and presented, but there are over-written and tedious passages that can slow the pace. The novel is partly based on the author’s own family background which is detailed in the notes at the end. Giulia’s temperamental and antagonistic behaviour towards those who love her is a bit of a puzzle at times and doesn't always present her in the best light. In fact, some of the lesser characters have more warmth than she does, but that doesn’t detract from a mostly entertaining read that should have a wide appeal for readers looking for a WW2 novel with a different setting.

With many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.
 
Three-and-a-half stars.
 
Booktopia
 
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Another novel that’s been around for a while but attracted me due to its synopsis, as it is set in a guesthouse opposite St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Having once stayed a few nights at a similar small hotel facing The Green which has an uncannily similar layout and rooms, I could immediately visualise the setting and even some of the characters working there. And as Dublin is one of my favourite cities, how could I resist!
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Aisling O’Mara has come home to Ireland after travelling and working around the world to take up the management of the family’s guesthouse. Her father has recently died and her mother has decided to call it quits. Aisling has an older brother, Patrick, who lives in America, and two sisters, Roisin and Moira. The eldest sister, Roisin, is busy with a family and the youngest, Moira, is leading the self-indulgent lifestyle of the young.

Aisling is still getting over being ditched at the altar by her intended, Marcus, who hightailed it to Cork just two weeks prior to the event. Her family is fiercely protective of Aisling and their reaction is predictable when he unexpectedly pops back into her life and she is torn between sending him packing, or forgiving him and letting him have a second chance.

This is a delightful novel that is a bit more than just fluffy chick-lit, as it has a secondary more serious story featuring an prickly middle-aged guest called Una who has come to Dublin also on a quest for forgiveness.

I really liked all of these characters. Mammy O’Mara is a joy. Moira is sassy and tends to drink and party too much. Aisling is energetic and has a weakness for teeteringly high heels and an ongoing battle with her waistline as she loves to eat, especially food created by her old friend, Quinn, who runs a nearby restaurant. Quinn carries a secret torch for Aisling and is not impressed by the return of Marcus. The Irish dialogue, expressions and patter are spot on, and some of it is very funny.

There are quite a number of books in the Guesthouse series available on Kindle and I’ll probably read more of them when looking for something light-hearted about endearing people who are sure to give a lift to any heart.

Four 1/2 stars.
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bookdepository  (Print copies don't seem to be available from Australian booksellers.)
 
(Coincidentally, in my TBR pile is a new book about the history of St. Stephen’s Green which will be reviewed at a later date.)

This is not a recent release, being published in 2017, but it is the first novel by the popular Josephine Moon that I have read.

Maria is a former nun who lives in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, where she runs Honeybee Haven and lovingly tends to her bees. She also makes tourist products for markets and offers retreat style escapes. She lives modestly herself and all her profits go to support an orphanage in Cambodia.

Maria has been estranged from her family for most of her life and when her niece, Tansy, tracks her down and arrives on her doorstep unannounced, keen to mend the rift, she knows she can no longer keep silent about how, and why, she left the convent. This is further complicated when Maria receives an anonymous threatening note and she realises that something wicked in her past is about to catch up with her.

Meanwhile, Tansy has her own issues with her husband, Dougal, who has accepted a job in Canada. After being confident she never wanted children when they were first married, her approaching birthday sets her biological clock ticking.

Most of the secondary characters also have their own personal crises to deal with, from babies with reflux to decisions about whether to continue with university. Even Tansy’s own parents’ marriage is fracturing over religion. As a result, the primary issue involving Maria – the horrific abuse and secrecy within the Catholic Church – can sometimes get “honeyed” down by all that is going on with the others, some of which is almost trivial in comparison. (The cheerful, brightly-illustrated cover reflects this to some extent.) Bees worldwide being under threat is the other major issue to think about.

The plotline and narrative flow well and the descriptions of how bees and their hives operate are particularly interesting. Maria has her positive characteristics but her immediate trusting of the slightly irritating and pushy Tansy, only to be followed by swift reliance on family members she doesn't know when a crisis occurs, makes it seem too contrived.

However, this is an easy read and thankfully not as over-written as are so many other books in this contemporary genre. It does tend towards being preachy in places, but I'll forgive that due to its brave plotline and twist in the ending; enough to lead me to cautiously consider other titles by this author.

Three-and-a-half stars.

Booktopia

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In 1904 Ruby May is a children’s nurse (we learn it is an occupation that should never be confused with the lesser  “nursemaid”) and is employed by the prestigious Norland Institute in London. After being unable to travel with her present family to America, she is reassigned to Hardcastle House in the wilds of Yorkshire to look after the four children of mill-owner, Charles England.
 
His wife, Lilian, the Mrs England of the title, is distant, detached and forgetful. She spends most of her time in her rooms, takes a lot of baths and shows scant interest in her children or the staff. There is no housekeeper and it is her husband who makes the decisions about the running of the household which Ruby finds most unusual, including his insistence that the children be locked into the nursery at night.
 
Ruby is puzzled by Mrs England’s odd behaviour and through her growing affectionate relationship with the children, her friendship with the tutor and other individuals such as the blacksmith Sheldrake, Ruby slowly peels back the layers of the truth. The narrative is interspersed with flashbacks in Ruby’s own life which also gradually reveal her own secrets.
 
Apart from having the main character a nurse rather than the ubiquitous governess, this has many of the classic elements of every gothic story that features a grand house with dysfunctional rich family and the usual array of brooding men, disgruntled servants, secret liaisons, missing letters and locked doors. It’s Jane Eyre meets Rebecca complemented with a dash of Downton Abbey, the Yorkshire glooms as per Wuthering Heights and much gas-lighting - in both the illuminative and psychological senses.
 
The writing, descriptions and historical detail are fine and although it is true to the Edwardian era there is the odd modernism or anachronism in dialogue that occasionally leaps out *. However, the penultimate paragraph is a gem and may make you re-evaluate everything you have taken to be true in the story.

I enjoyed it well enough while reading it, but perhaps I've read too many similar books and it didn’t quite do as much for me as it seems to have done for the majority of reviewers elsewhere.
 
Three stars.


Booktopia
 
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* If someone can prove to me that toasting marshmallows on forks over fires was common practice in mid-late 19th Century Australia - as opposed to America - then I stand corrected. 

Celebrity memoirs are not normally high on my reading list, but this one was recommended to me and I have been delighted with the discovery. The book isn't an autobiography, rather a random selection of vignettes and memories and in no particular chronological order.

It dips in and out of Byrne's rough Dublin childhood and early years of struggles; darts off to a Hollywood system that bemused and baffled him; alludes to serious episodes involving clerical abuse when he was in a seminary, yet skirts around utter condemnation, and is frank about his battles with alcoholism, his family's foibles and sister's mental health issues.

It has laugh-out-loud moments involving discovering God and religious education with the nuns (reminds me of that other irreverent Irishman, Dave Allen) and his early Hollywood fumbles in his first big blockbuster movie, including faking love-making to a pink pillow while dressed in a full suit of armour. Meeting his idols Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier have a poignancy all their own.

This extract celebrates Byrne's first stage appearance as a shepherd with cotton wool beard in a school nativity play:-

"Goose Gavin with jug-handle ears and a big, red face landed the role of St. Joseph. Burkey, who had fleas that jumped out from under his collar, was Mary, dressed in a blue curtain. The baby Jesus was a rubber doll. There were angels and wise men who came from the East with nice presents.
The Virgin Mary said to the wise men:
---- Youse shouldn't have gone to all that trouble, youse --
---- Not YOUSE!!! the nun shouted. Youse is what common people say. The holy family aren't from the tenements.

[further description and dialogue referencing the wise men, the twins who made up the donkey plus the angel, who is discreetly unnamed.]

I have bad news, the angel said and looked at me strangely. I glanced down and saw piss coming like a snake from the angel toward me, then flowing under my shepherd's sandals. There is an evil king  who's going to kill all the little babies in Israel, so baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have to fly into Egypt. 
So, the holy family put the  rubber doll on the donkey's back and Goose Gavin said
---- Thanks for everything. Goodbye now."

Contrasted with these other frank excerpts:-

"I struggle with authenticity. Being truthful. Both to myself first and to other people.
Is it possible to be completely honest with myself? To admit my fears, my demons, prejudices, the petty envies, the unfulfilled desires? I want to live an authentic life. To take off the mask requires courage. I admit my fragility, my vulnerability and weakness."
​...

I am by nature an introvert. For a long time I was ashamed of this. As if it were somehow a moral failing ... I can be sociable too. But it drains me of energy and I have to find refuge in solitude again."

This is a short volume, less than 200 pages, but is packed with wit, humanity, lyricism, introspection, joy and loads of Irish charm. Gabriel Byrne might have never quite achieved superstar status, but will be a familiar face to many from stage, TV and film. When or if he retires from acting, he has all the makings of an excellent author.

Five stars.

booktopia

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The Irish Famine of the 1840s is still one of the most disgraceful events in British history: a time when the potato crop failed due to blight and countless thousands of people were evicted from their tenancies, became destitute and starved. The government in London either ignored the issue or mishandled it to such an extent that some estimates state a million people died while at least another million were forced to emigrate. 

With this background, one only takes up any book about the Famine with caution, knowing full well you are going to face some distressing scenes. And this is certainly the case with this novel although the author manages to balance the most harrowing episodes with the human need to help others and the importance of family strength.

Principally set in and around the town of Skibbereen in County Cork, Mary and John Sullivan and their four children are faced with the many challenges that come their way after their potato harvest fails. ​When they are evicted from their cottage for being unable to pay rent, John labours on hare-brained government employment schemes in shocking conditions, for irregular and poor pay. Mary brings in a few pennies with her needlework. Malnourished and with having to pawn or sell their warm clothes, sickness is ever present.

Trying to do what he can for everyone is the remarkable, selfless doctor Dan Donovan who is the Medical Officer for the Skibbereen Union Workhouse and risks his own health with long working hours. Burying children whom he helped to deliver only to witness them dying from disease, exposure and hunger tears him apart. Father John Fitzpatrick pleads for help with higher authorities but is too often dismissed or ignored.

The writing is uncomplicated and the narrative flows well. Some reviewers have commented on its simplicity or the lack of in-depth characterisations which I think is rather unfair. Expressions of individuality in such a major crisis don't need analytical exploration. Trying to survive, being united and putting others first is what this novel is all about and although there are many shocking and tear-jerking passages, there is also courage, hope and determination to get through which ultimately adds to a satisfying story. (The author's notes reveal that much of the background is based in truth taken from the diaries of the real Dr Donovan.)
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Four stars

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Booktopia

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Someone bears a grudge against the Adler family, but is it against all four of them or just one? Could it be the father, Thomas, a real estate agent who has something to hide after an indiscretion at a bucks’ night? Or is it against his interior designer wife, Viv, who’s a kleptomaniac? Their son, Eli, refuses to say why he suddenly dropped out of university and his underage sister, Tarryn, is running a risky online business. Told in four personal narratives, none of them know each other’s secrets.
 
It starts out innocently enough with what seems to be childish vandalism with eggs thrown at their house under cover of darkness but soon escalates into more serious damage to their property, including fire. The police are of little help so the family are left to investigate in their own way.
 
The characters are clearly defined. Thomas and Viv are all about appearances and success and so are at odds with the less-driven Eli and Tarryn, who is an edgy, cynical teenager.
 
This is a smooth, binge-worthy read for anyone who likes a rapid-fire thriller. With each family member having something to hide that is only revealed to one another as the novel unfolds, it works well for the most part. Not everything is fully resolved and the conclusion leaves a few unanswered questions which may appeal to some readers but not those who like all the loose ends in their novels tidied up.
 
This is the first Robyn Harding book I’ve read and will definitely look out for more of her titles. Recommended as a great reading alternative when you’ve exhausted all the thrillers on television!
 
(Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for the ARC.)
 
4 stars.

 
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​Whenever we consult our favourite recipe book for that special dish we probably don't give a thought to the fact that once upon a time recipes were not ordered in the way we recognise today, i.e. a list of ingredients giving the correct proportions, followed by a carefully detailed method. Once, recipes were far more vague that left it up to the reader to figure out what might be meant by a "quantity" or "scoop" of, say, flour, sugar, butter or apples (two, six, ten?) A spoonful might meant a teaspoon or a tablespoon (try adding a tablespoon of cinnamon to your apple pie and see what happens!) Experienced cooks would have kept the recipes in their heads but without better guidance it must have resulted in many a cooking disaster for the beginner!

Recipes didn't take the form we know today until writers like Eliza Acton came along and started to pull them into shape for the average cook. This novel re-imagines the life of Eliza Acton and that of her kitchen assistant, Ann Kirby, in dual narratives. 

Born into a comfortable family and occupying much of her time writing poetry, Eliza's secure world is turned upside down when her father has a financial failure and takes off to France, leaving Eliza and her mother to find some way of making ends meet. They start a boarding house near Tonbridge, Kent, but to her mother's dismay, Eliza decides that she will look after the kitchen and meals. Eliza's publisher had once suggested she write a cookery book rather than more poetry and eventually she begins her project, assisted by Ann. Her mother hates the idea ("Ladies do not cook!") and still holds out hope. "Only marriage and money bring freedom," she reminds her. "Without them you will grow old and lonely and bitter, a hated old maid who must serve others for a pittance." When an opportunity does arise, Eliza has to make her decision. Marriage and a comfortable but boring life, or to risk all and publish her book?

In Ann's narrative, we experience the grim reality of the starving poor in Victorian England. Her demented mother may have to be confined in an asylum, and her father who has only one leg struggles with drink and finding any kind of secure work. With their  pompous do-gooding and righteousness, the local vicar and his wife turn out to be both a blessing and a curse on Ann's family. Fortunately her brother has found work in the kitchen of a London gentleman's club under the famous French chef Soyer and Ann dreams of the day she, too, might also cook for a living. Eventually, her path leads her to Eliza's boarding house and the wonderful partnership of cooking and friendship is formed.

The descriptions of everything from street scenes to Victorian parlours are as lush and extravagant as some of the recipes and the narrative moves seamlessly between the experiences of the two women. Like a mouth-watering, rich meal, this novel is to be savoured slowly and not rushed. (I imagine readers may want to know what some of these Victorian recipes tasted like and there could be a run on old copies of Eliza Acton's book, maybe even the opportunity for a new tie-in edition.)

Five stars.

Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Links to international book sites be will added closer to publication date.

(Annabel Abbs' two earlier novels both received Editors' Choice awards from the Historical Novel Society. See my reviews of The Joyce Girl and Frieda.)

​One of the most written-about individuals from British history would have to be Winston Churchill and apart from a couple of biographies on his wife, Clementine, very little is known about the women in his life, especially his daughters.
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The Churchills had five children, four girls, Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary, and one son, Randolph. The son, as might have been expected, was the one who was groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps as a politician yet was almost a failure and perhaps a disappointment to his father.

One daughter, Marigold, sadly died when just a toddler due in part to an inexperienced nanny's lack of foresight, but the other three are the subject of this book.

Churchill’s famous gene of “black dog depression” would be passed on, but how each child coped with it makes for interesting comparisons.

As the first-born, Diana, had problems in such a dynamic family and her retiring and diffident nature became a trial and would ultimately create mental health issues. Next was Sarah who made a name for herself as an actress on the stage and in movies in Britain and in America. Passionate and talented, she also had her demons, loving the wrong men and fighting a battle with alcohol. The youngest daughter, Mary, was the one who seemed to have weathered the storms the best and helped under the influence of the trustworthy last nanny, Maryatt Whyte, known as Moppett, who raised her to be enterprising and level-headed. Her accomplishments were many, her home and public life far more serene than those of her sisters. 

Although during their early childhood they remained remote from their parents in the manner of high society of the day it was not until much later that Clementine saw the errors of her ways and became closer to her children. In fact, it looks as if Winston was the better parent and he always found the time to have fun with them. Although they had their differences and challenges, he never stopped supporting them. In return, the girls all adored him which shows him in a surprising new light considering his status and also as a father of his time.

Well-researched and insightful, this is a marvellous book for anyone interested in people who live in the shadow of greatness or who just want to discover more about women who have been hidden in that shadow.

Five stars

(Also see my review of “Before Wallis”, Rachel Trethewey’s book on the lady friends of the Duke of Windsor.)


 
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Booktopia

The story of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt continues to fascinate nearly a century after the event took place. Even though it has been debunked, some still believe there was a curse attached to those individuals who disturbed the Pharaoh's eternal rest. It was archaeologist Howard Carter who did the disturbing, bankrolled mainly by Lord Carnarvon. One of those two did die not long after the tomb was opened, but others who were there on that momentous day when the seals  of the tomb were broken lived on for many more years. Among those others present was Lady Evelyn Herbert (later Beauchamp), daughter of Lord Carnarvon, and this is a fictional retelling of her part in that famous event.

We first meet Evelyn, or Eve, in the early 1970s when she is frail and struggling to recover from a series of strokes. Her memory of the recent past is blank or fading, but she clearly remembers everything that happened fifty years before.

Cared for by her loving husband, Brograve, and daughter, Patricia, she is approached by a stranger, Ana Mansour, who claims to be an Egyptian archaeologist looking for objects allegedly missing from Tutankhamun's tomb and of which she believes Eve knows the whereabouts.

The novel takes rather too long to get to the mystery of the missing pieces although anyone who has seen, or read, recent revelations in print and in television documentaries about what really happened prior to the official opening of the tomb will know that certain items were sneakily appropriated by the discovery team. Some of them ended up in Highclere Castle - Lord Carnarvon's estate, the building familiar to anyone who watched the TV series Downton Abbey - while others disappeared. 

Although she'd fancied she might be an archaeologist herself, Eve's younger self isn't as disciplined or circumspect as that profession requires and she isn't good at keeping secrets. The older Eve is also trusting when she should be more cautious given her state of health and it is her patient husband, Brograve, who is the stable influence.

Curiously, on some levels this novel is more about growing old, dealing with the loss of one's faculties and living in the past than it is about some weird Egyptian curse. This may well make some readers impatient with it especially if they looking for more of a fast-paced thriller but it still has its pluses as a story of a little-known woman who witnessed history in the making.

Three and-a-half Stars

​(With many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC)

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Booktopia

  

Mercy Blain’s house in Adelaide burns down and she is traumatised. She has not just lost her home and belongings, but also her refuge from the world for the past two years. Broken by a series of devastating personal events, she has struggled with her mental health.

She accepts temporary accommodation with her ex-husband Eugene and his new lover but knows she can’t possibly stay with them and must try to find a way of breaking out of the anxiety and shadows she has created for herself. When she comes across an elderly man selling a battered 0ld Daihatsu Hijet campervan, with hand-painted flowers on the bodywork and the words ‘Home is wherever you ARE’, she buys it.

Mercy’s spontaneous escape route is partly brought on by trying to dislodge a huntsman spider walking across her windscreen and with her loyal dachshund Wasabi by her side, plus an unexpected box of human ashes under a bench for company, she embarks on her journey of redemption and recovery along the Stuart Highway all the way across Central Australia to Darwin.

With a vehicle that has a top speed of 70 kph and bodywork held together on a wing a prayer, naturally there are hold-ups and diversions along the way. Mercy encounters an assortment of characters including breezy grey nomads, an imagined Outback serial killer and a tabloid journalist who unfortunately recognises her.

She also meets the Scotsman, Andy, who is on his own personal journey and while travelling in tandem with him Mercy finally begins to gain control of the panic attacks that have crippled her life. On the rare occasions her ex-husband manages to contact her - telecommunications being highly unreliable in the Outback- he repeatedly pressures her to return to face the music in an upcoming enquiry but Mercy is determined to complete the journey on her own terms and still make it back on time.

This entertaining and rewarding “road” story has its adventure and whimsy while never shying away from the serious mental health issues that can be brought on by life’s unpredictable events, by stress, and the unreasonable demands of perfection we often place on ourselves. Mercy is a likeable and finely-drawn character, someone with whom many readers will identify and enjoy spending time with. Highly recommended.
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With many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
 
Five stars

Amazon
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Booktopia

 
This is described in the promotional blurbs as a Gothic novel with shades of Daphne Du Maurier’s famous “Rebecca” that featured the house called Manderley. In this case, the house is Sargasso, built on the coast of Victoria by Hannah’s architect father.

Hannah, an only and lonely child, grows up at Sargasso from the age of seven. After her father dies, she goes away to a new life in Melbourne, returning when she inherits the house as an adult. She is undecided what to do with the place; renovate and sell, or stay. When her mysterious childhood companion, Flint, reappears as an adult her life gets complicated and she breaks up with her boyfriend Tristan.

The novel has tandem chapters, “Now” and “Then”, so we experience Hannah’s innocent childhood years with Flint as well as the increasingly dark present with them as adults. The reader knows that Flint is other-worldly but who is he, what does he want? Although we have hints, these questions are never really answered. There’s a slow build-up to the predictable final resolution that is less than satisfying.

It might depend on one’s reading preferences and/or sympathy for individuals suffering through an alternate reality whether they find this novel an enjoyable experience. Angry and controlling male characters in women’s fiction have little attraction for me, so I failed to grasp any real understanding of Hannah’s besotted behaviour - and even more so if it was all in her imagination. Other readers will no doubt feel quite different from me. 
 
Three stars.

Booktopia

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Although this book is categorised as crime fiction, it also qualifies as historical fiction, being set in Northern New South Wales in the mid-1960s.

Hal is twelve years old and, while wandering around the bush outside the town of Moorabool with his younger brother Evan, comes across a German Shepherd that has been brutally killed and dumped in a drum. The boys remove the animal and try to give it a decent burial. Although disturbed by the discovery, being a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Hal decides to investigate. Could it be connected to the nearby sinister “Highway Palace”, an abandoned caravan with a dark history?

The owner of the dog is Mick Goodenough (pronounced Good-No), a detective recently exiled from Sydney and demoted to probationary constable in the rural town. When he discovers the burial, he recognises the warning signs of a potentially dangerous psychopath on the loose. But he is up against the convoluted undercurrents of life in a small town including adultery, corruption, racism and even apathy.

Apart from Hal and Mick, these are an interesting range of characters. There’s the local power couple, the Curios, who have ambitious and ruthless plans for land development. The police sergeant Bradley may be in their pocket and Hal’s parents’ marriage is under stress. While her husband is away, Hal's mother starts receiving menacing phone calls from someone who whistles the Elvis tune, "Are you Lonesome Tonight?" Could he also be the perpetrator of the killings?

As things escalate at a terrifying rate, narrow-mindedness and prejudice sees the finger immediately pointed at the Aboriginal community without due diligence of the facts. Mick has his work cut out for him proving the truth, while Hal’s youthful enterprise and intelligence is a refreshing twist on the usual stock investigative characters.

This book must come with a warning as there is graphic violence with both animal and human torture that some readers may find hard to take, but its plotting, authentic dialogue and Australian country atmosphere can’t be faulted.

Four stars.

With thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.

(Not on sale in the USA until 2021.)


 
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As a bit of a nit-picker, the dodgy grammar in the title of this book astonished  me, as surely it ought to be "The Three Misses Allen"?  However, to give it the benefit of the doubt, the summary sounded interesting enough and I always try to be more tolerant of any book that can rise above its failures in editing.

There are two parallel stories here set in South Australia. We have distant cousins Roma and Addy dealing with personal issues in modern days, and three sisters, Ruby, Adeline and Clara, in the 1930s.

Recently-widowed Roma escapes to Remarkable Bay where she buys a run-down guesthouse and starts to renovate it. Between jobs in the film industry, the high- octane Addy comes to help her. Along the way they get involved with two men who are also cousins, Connor and Blake. All four individuals have links to the three Misses Allen from the 1930s, who stayed at the guesthouse but whose lives were less lucky for various complex reasons.

This is pretty much a relationships soap opera, although I personally much preferred the 1930s components as they raised more moral questions about behaviour, responsibility and family duty, unlike the pity-me self-absorbed characteristics of the modern women. The nice blokes in this story deserve a medal for putting up with them and rarely rolling their "aqua-blue" eyes in exasperation!

On the more sombre side, domestic violence is, and was, a fact of life, but I dislike reading it and usually skim such passages in print. Unfortunately, I found Addy's character to be so unlikable, foul-mouthed and inconsiderate of others that she left me borderline with sympathy for her situation.

Anyhow, I did struggle to the end knowing the modern girls would happily dance off into the surf with their Chris Hemsworth look-alikes, but was disappointed that there wasn't more of tragic Clara's story which could have had a more positive outcome than it did.

There were some glaring errors with names from the 1930s story (Ruby/Roma) being mixed up with the modern one, so this again reflects on shoddy editing at the final proof stage. 

Two-and-a-half stars.

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This is an Aussie crime novel with a difference. There are no grisly Outback serial killers, city gang shoot-outs or corrupt cops – too often the standard fare of the Australian crime genre.

Detective Grant Johnson from the town of Fresh Well has a suspicious fire to investigate and a lot of shenanigans to negotiate.

In the rural village of Stony Creek, someone has burnt down the tiny school. The culprit is likely to be someone indulging in an illicit cigarette shortly before a meeting of the school’s Parents and Citizens association. Naturally, there is a main cast of characters with something to hide.

Sarah accidently sees P & C chairwoman Jennifer having it off with the Principal, Brock.

Shocked, she then returns home to spring her husband Ian having it off with the babysitter, Madison, Jennifer and Andy’s teenage daughter.

Andy is secretly conducting an internet relationship with old flame Abi but forgets to delete his computer's History.

From his verandah, Madison’s elderly grandfather Mack watches the comings and goings of white utes set about mysterious liaisons involving cigarettes and comes to his own conclusions.

Shades of the English bedroom farce but Aussie-style, this is a most refreshing change of pace from grim or intense crime fiction. You know everyone will end up with egg on their faces as things unravel, but the journey is a light-hearted ride that will have you grinning and even laughing out loud in places.

Oh, what a tangled web is woven and in one word - Delightful!
 
Four stars

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​This is the second novel by Alison Stuart set during the 1870s and to feature the gold-mining town of Maiden’s Creek in the Gippsland area of Australia. (Although not essential to have read the first, The Postmistress, it does help to set the scene and the background of some of the secondary characters.)
 
Eliza Penrose arrives from England, expecting to be met by her brother, Will. However, he is not there and she soon learns from her uncle, mine-owner Charles Cowper, that he is dead, having fallen accidentally from a tailings heap late at night, presumably being drunk. Eliza is devastated.

When it seems that there had been a falling-out between uncle and nephew shortly before his death, Eliza is determined to get to the truth of the matter.
 
Meanwhile, after a disastrous early encounter with him, Eliza is increasingly drawn to widowed mining engineer, Alec McLeod, and their relationship slowly blossoms. However, all is put at risk by discoveries of underhanded greedy practices in the operation of the mines and danger from those who would stop at nothing, not even murder, to protect their evil schemes.
 
This is a really entertaining page-turner, as well-crafted as the earlier novel and with plenty of gold-mining history (some of it based on real events) woven beautifully throughout.
 
(Click here for my review of The Postmistress.)
 
Four stars.
 
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Lexie leaves her three-year-old daughter Bella with the other mothers in her playgroup while she pops out to the shop for biscuits. When she returns six minutes later, Bella has disappeared. None of the other mothers or children realise she is no longer there.  She has just vanished.

And so the nightmare begins for Lexie and her husband Marty as the mystery become ever more tangled the longer the little girl is missing.

Could Lexie have left the gate open accidentally so that Bella wandered off on her own? Does an unexpected visit to the playgroup by one of the husbands hold the clue? What are the motivations behind one of the mothers, Tara, and her secret blog? Why did schoolteacher Brendan lie about his whereabouts? And what about Lexie and Marty themselves - why did they move from England and have to change their surname? All these clues and many more form the background to this story. And then there's the jaded cop, Caruso, who fears the worst has come to this small town near Australia's capital city, Canberra.

This is a fast-paced and mostly well-constructed thriller (ideal for wintry afternoons!) and it certainly keeps you guessing with nearly every character having secrets or up to no good. The setting of Canberra was familiar to me, having myself been part of similar mothers' groups there in the past, and for those who know the city, the town Merrigang has aspects of Hall, Tharwa, Murrumbateman and Gundaroo. The inclusion of "trial by social media" with its trolls and hysteria is an all too accurate reflection of what can happen in our times when a child goes missing. Lexie's neurosis and wavering doubts about Marty which had their foundation in an earlier event felt overworked at times but 
fortunately, unlike real life, there is a happy - if slightly too pat - outcome to this story otherwise I wouldn't recommend it as a light read.


3 1/2 stars

(Australian booksellers below, the book does not appear to be available in other countries as yet.)

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