THE SECRET WORLD OF CONNIE STARR by ROBBI NEAL
I was among those fortunate enough to be given such an early copy of this book, it was before ARCs were even available. The downside to this was I’ve had to sit on my excitement about what an absolute stellar of a read it is until now. The Secret World of Connie Starr is a whimsical, beautiful work of historical fiction, set in Ballarat during World War II and a decade or so beyond. It centres on the Starr family, the Baptist minister and head of the family, Joseph, his younger, second wife, Flora, three children from his first marriage and then the youngest child – Joseph’s and Flora’s only child – Connie. From the moment she is born, Connie is marked as different – not so much physically – it’s her way of perceiving the world that marks her out as extraordinary. For Connie experiences life as a never-ending battle between forces of good, evil, daring and cowardice, truth and lies, yet when she tries to explain this to her friends and family, she is blithely dismissed, feared, bullied or her unique way of seeing things is exploited. As daily life goes on around Connie and the years pass and people come and go, she observes those who enter and depart, most often from the branches of her beloved lemon tree. Beyond Connie’s gaze, however, the reader is given insight into what happens behind the closed doors of not just the Starr family, but others in their tight-knit community – in particular, the Finchleys, Mabbetts and Mitchell families. This is small-town life writ large and with brutality, rawness and, above all, astonishing beauty. Quintessentially Australian, evoking a time and place at once familiar and strange, this book is an ode to difference, to those who dare to dream,...
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The Collector’s Daughter by Gill Paul
I’ve always been transfixed by stories of ancient Egypt and in particular those surrounding the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb in the 1920s, and the tales of the Earl of Carnarvon and the archaeologist responsible for the site, Howard Carter. What I didn’t know and what Gill Paul’s novel tells, is the story of the Earl’s daughter, amateur archaeologist, Lady Evelyn (later Beauchamp), who was also present when the tomb was opened. Based on known facts and real historical figures, this is a wonderful story about love, loyalty, cultural appropriation, secrets, superstition and memory. Moving between two time frames – the 1920s and 1970s – the story of the discovery and the subsequent tragedies that follow, become a backdrop to Evelyn and her husband, Brograve’s, romance and marriage – familial and personal triumphs and setbacks and the ways in which the opening of the tomb impacted their lives. What I particularly loved about this book was that in one of the time frames, an older Evelyn and Brograve reflect upon their shared experiences over many decades as a loving couple in their 70s, dealing with a health crisis and salvaging memories and moments. It’s so sensitively written and it’s wonderful to have not only older voices narrating, but bearing witness to a functional relationship of so many years! The mystery at the heart of the book is evident early but also woven through the narrative in such a way that though there is no “big reveal”, the ending is both gratifying and strangely moving. It’s inevitable. The Author’s Notes are fascinating and I completely understand Gill Paul being unable to resist exploring Evelyn further once she learned about her and ultimately, telling HERstory. A lovely, affecting...
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THE DARK HOURS by MICHAEL CONNELLY
The latest instalment in Michael Connelly’s series featuring Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch, The Dark Hours, sees the retired detective, Bosch, take a back seat as Ballard, still doing the night shift or dark hours, attempts to solve two crimes: the murder of a former gang member at a benign New Year’s Eve celebration, and the brutal rapes of three women. With a lazy partner in sexual crimes keen to hand the workload to Ballard, and homicide breathing down her neck and about to take the gang murder from her, Renee turns to someone she can trust to have her back. When it looks as if the murderer may have friends in high places, never before has a friend been something Ballard needs so much… Yet again, a fantastic, wonderfully plotted novel that not only reveals the inner workings of the police in two different specialities, but also incorporates contemporary issues like Covid and the insurrection around Trump’s defeat. These give the novel an immediacy and frisson that succeed in ratcheting up the tension and sense of reality. Connelly never disappoints. Already looking forward to the next in the...
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The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Isn’t it amazing how people can read the same book and yet have such contrasting reactions and opinions about it? I just read a review of this book which damned it with faint praise and yet also offered very legitimate and well written reasons as to why that particular reader didn’t connect with the story or characters. Well, my experience could not have been more different. I adored this book – the story, the use of real history, the wonderful rich and complex characters – so much so, I slowed down my reading because I didn’t want this tale to end. So, what’s it about? Set in the late 1800s, and in a world that mirrors our own but isn’t quite the same (for example, there’s magic), the action occurs when the suffragette movement was finding its legs and voice in the USA. It’s about three estranged sisters, Juniper, Agnes and Beatrice who, almost against their will, find themselves together in New Salem where the women’s movement is struggling to be heard. Forced to hide and even deny their magic, women and witches have endured oppression, bigotry and violence for centuries and this appears to be gaining momentum. As the blurb says, there are patriarchal forces out there who will not suffer a witch/women to vote – or live. But those forces didn’t account for the combined power of the three sisters nor the magic they unwittingly unleash and must now seek to harness if they don’t want the dark powers stalking and haunting them to silence them and thus all women/witches once and for all. Exquisitely written, rich and dark, this tale about some women’s fight for recognition, for basic human rights and the lengths they’re forced to go to in order to secure these, the sacrifices they’re...
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Song of Flight by Juliet Marillier
Do you ever mourn when you finish a book, let alone a series? I do every time I finish a Juliet Marillier book, partly because it’s such a wrench to leave the mystical, ancient, magical world she’s created and the flawed and marvellous characters, but also because I know I have to wait a while to read her next creation. I felt this acutely reading Song of Flight, staying up until 4am to finish it, weeping (with sorrow and joy) and with a heart so full, it was some time before I was able to sleep. The third book in the Warrior- Druid series but I think the 6th (I might be wrong) set in this particular location, this is a sensational conclusion to a wonderful series. Liobhan, Brocc and Galen, the children of the fabulous Blackthorn and Grimm, who also make an appearance, find their courage, loyalty, and bonds tested in ways they never have been before as they set out to solve not only the mystery of Prince Alou’s disappearance, but the one the Crow Folk have always posed. Filled with charm, charms, fully-rounded characters, dreadful machinations and cruelty, and rich in kindness, this book is a slow-burn that draws the reader deeper and deeper into the story’s final moments, much like a grand musical score, where the notes linger in the heart and mind, moving you as you marvel at the complexity and yet utter beauty of the symphony. As I said, I was completely fulfilled when I finished and yet, devastated too. My only hope is that I feel there are more stories to come from these characters and Juliet has set the scene to either explore these or leave the reader satisfied (almost) if this is our farewell. Song of Flight is a triumph,...
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THE GOSLING GIRL BY JACQUELINE ROY
It would be inaccurate to say I enjoyed this book. It’s a bleak story that is at once challenging and thought-provoking and for both those reasons and so many more, really important. Rather, I was astounded by this book, it’s themes, plot and the way the story moves along – so much so – I couldn’t put it down. It tells the tale of Michelle Cameron, the “Gosling Girl” of the title, a young black woman who, when the book opens, is just released back into the community after serving time for having committed a heinous crime (killing a little white child) when she was 10 years old. Given a new identity, the reader follows Michelle as she takes her first tentative steps into “normality”, only, as Michelle quickly discovers, “normality” is a relative term. When an old friend of Michelle’s is murdered and she’s linked to the crime, she is immediately suspected. Worse, the life she’d slowly started to build for herself swiftly unravels as the police, media, public and others target Michelle, assuming guilt long before anything is proven. A young black detective assigned to the case, Natalie Tyler, observes what’s happening to Michelle and, against her professional judgement, finds herself drawn in. Is Michelle innocent of the crimes past and present? Is she as much a victim as the those she’s accused of killing and deserving of protection from the terrible forces mounting against her, or is she as evil as she’s been painted and thus the endless punishment others seek to mete out is warranted? When is one considered to have “served their time”? Is it possible to be redeemed or start again when society, the media, and those who have something to gain from keeping the crime in the social memory, persist in reminding...
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SILENCE OF THE GIRLS by PAT BARKER
I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book, especially because the Iliad and the myths and plays about the gods, men and women involved in the Trojan War are among my favourite reads. Then, of course, there is Madeline Miller’s sublime, Song of Achilles. Yet, Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls manages to do what few of these other creative works have done – take us into the heads and hearts of the women who, as a consequence of war and men’s hubris, greed and toxic masculinity become, to use that heartless, revolting term “collateral damage.” In Silence of the Girls, Barker tells an ancient story in modern and sparse prose, yet without sacrificing poetry and depth. The ten-year long Trojan War is told mainly through the eyes of one of the female “spoils”, the princess, Briseis, who is awarded to the great hero and demi-god, Achilles, after her home is sacked. If you’re familiar with the Iliad, you know what happens to both her and the man who claims her. After some time, King Agamemnon, who sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to launch the thousand ships, demands Briseis for himself. This happens when he is forced to give up his female prize (the priestess, Chryseis) to end a terrible plague wreaking havoc in the Greek camp. As a consequence, a sulking Achilles, publicly deprived of his “prize”, and with his ego bent and honour trampled upon, refuses to fight any longer and withdraws from battle. The Greeks, who after nine years at war were close to victory, begin to lose ground. And so, the two leaders of men, Achilles and Agamemnon, very nearly bring the Greeks and their allies to the point of destruction – over a girl. Well, it’s this girl (and others) who...
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THE NURSES’ WAR BY VICTORIA PURMAN
Based on actual historical events and people, this novel is a powerful and moving tribute to the Australian nurses, doctors, allied health workers and civilian volunteers – British too – who did all they could for the men and women who survived the horrors of the WWI battlefields. When Australian nurse, Sister Cora Baker, has the opportunity to serve her country at a newly established hospital in Middlesex England in a little village called Harefield in 1915, she doesn’t hesitate. Harefield House, donated to the Australian army by some generous expatriates so it can be turned into a hospital to care for wounded Australian soldiers, Cora works with other Aussie medical staff to establish and transform the grand house. Not knowing quite what to expect, as the war rages on and the casualty and death count grow, Harefield House is overwhelmed and all too soon, Cora and the other nurses and doctors are working around the clock, exhausted but determined to do their duty. When they call for volunteers, a local, young seamstress, Jessica Chester steps up. It’s while working at the hospital that she meets Private Bert Mott, a recuperating soldier who is destined, like so many others they care for, to be returned to the front. As endless stream of injured and dying enter and leave the care of the dedicated nurses and doctors, it’s apparent the nurses are fighting their own kind of war, one defined by bandages, pain relief, and an abundance of loving care. But is it enough when despair, fatigue and a crushing sense of failure abide with them as well? The Nurses’ War is an amazing story of a little-known chapter in Australian, British and war history. It doesn’t steer away from portraying the brutal realities of the physical, psychological and emotional...
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When You Were Mine by Michael Robotham
Once again, Michael Robotham has delivered a taut, atmospheric and utterly riveting story in a fabulous standalone novel that deals with fraught themes. This tale about toxic masculinity (and the forces that work to maintain it at any cost) and friendships, the way in which children can continue to pay for their parents’ past, and how some people can work against their own best interests is a challenging read. All her life, Philomena (Phil) has wanted to be a police officer. Despite her family’s criminal past, she manages to secure a position in the force and excels at her job. Fast forward a few years and she is much admired, engaged to a good man, and striving ahead in her chosen profession and personal life. Then, she is called upon the attend a DV case. From that moment forward, both aspects of her life begin to unravel. I won’t say much more except that this is such a hold-you-breath-and-turn-the page novel, I was quite literally on the edge of my seat! Well, hospital bed, actually, as I was unexpectedly admitted to hospital (not Covid!) and turned to something I knew would distract me from a distressing time – thank you, Michael R, you never let me down. This is a book that will linger in your imagination long after the last page. It is masterfully told, incredibly fast paced and deeply unsettling. It holds a dark mirror up to society and dares you to look. I did and am still being haunted by what I saw....
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The Last of the Apple Blossom by Mary-Lou Stephens
There’s no doubt that books set in Tasmania are popular at the moment and if this marvellous debut novel by former Taswegian, Mary-Lou Stephens, is anything to go by, it’s no wonder. This beautiful, heart-wrenching and atmospheric story about the apple orchardists of the scenic Huon Valley, is Australian historical fiction at its finest. The tale opens in a dramatic and utterly riveting fashion – with the traumatic and deadly bushfires that ripped through not just Hobart, but great swathes of the East Coast, destroying everything in their path. Readers follow schoolteacher, Catherine Turner, as she desperately sets about keeping her pupils and colleagues safe from the flames’ path, before undertaking a dangerous journey south to check on her family and their apple orchard. Tragedy awaits Catherine yet, being stalwart and loyal, she seeks to help her grieving father and mother rebuild their business and stake a claim in the industry and area she loves. Only, long-standing prejudice, changing political and industrial conditions and heart-ache will stand in her way. In the meantime, her neighbour and childhood friend, Annie, has just given birth to a longed-for daughter. After five sons, this child is precious. Even so, Catherine cannot fathom Annie’s set against her husband’s old friend, Mark, and his young son, Charlie, who have come to stay with them as respite from a stalled career and broken marriage. Unable to help herself, Catherine is drawn to both Charlie and Mark, alienating Annie because of her interest, but without understanding why. Against this alternating familial and friendship backdrop, the greater story of the apple orchardists, their heart-ache, back-breaking work and disappointment plays out over the years. We bear witness to massive social and political changes and challenges, the influx of migrants into the community, union movements, decisions made in far...
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