The Creeper

Ten years ago five people died while hiking in the mountains in north-east Victoria. Police officer Sally White has been alerted to increased public interest in the case caused by some of the media wanting interviews and the one survivor of the murdered group who plans to return to record a documentary with members of families of the victims. Her interest in the case increases when the brother of the man accused of the crime tells her he is undertaking his own investigations as he suspects that the police came to the wrong decision about the murderer.

As Sally investigates the cold case, she discovers that the members of the hiking group all had stories that had not been investigated as police at the time were convinced that they had the killer.

In The Creeper, Margaret Hickey has written another Australian crime thriller that, once started, readers will find difficult to put down until they have finished reading the book. As well as the descriptions of the inhabitants of Edenville, the mountains of the Victorian High Country are an important feature of this novel. Another excellent book by Margaret Hickey. 

Rock and Tempest: surviving Cyclone Tracy and its aftermath

In Australia we know that during the wet season cyclones strike northern Australia. Fortunately many cyclones reach land in unpopulated or sparsely populated areas but they can also cause havoc in coastal towns or cities. Cyclone Tracy arrived in Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974.

 In 1974, Patricia Collins was a Wran stationed in Darwin. Staff at the naval base knew that the storm was approaching but exactly where it would cross the land was not known until shortly before its arrival. Many people had left Darwin to celebrate Christmas with families further south, however those left quickly prepared for the arrival of the storm. The devastation was incredible with most of the city flattened by the cyclone. Most women and children left in Darwin were evacuated as soon as possible though the Wrans remained with other navy staff to assist in the cleanup. 

In Rock and Tempest, Patricia Collins recounts her experiences in Darwin at this time. She has also interviewed other people with whom she was working for their memories of that time. Together that paint a picture of the horrors encountered when Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin and the devastation caused by the storm when they were involved in the cleanup afterwards. The exact number of deaths due to the storm has been questioned. Figures for those who died varied from 66 to 71. Some people consider these figures to be low.

Christmas Day 2024 will be the the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy hitting the Australian coast. Rock and Tempest is a book that allows ordinary Australians to better understand what it was like being in Darwin at that time.

A Secret Garden in Paris

Several days exploring Paris, including a number of the large public parks and gardens, in 2011 proved to us that Paris is a special place. A Secret Garden in Paris, by Sophie Beaumont has captured the beauty and significance of the gardens and parks, including some of the smaller, often hidden public and private gardens in the city, as the novel reveals the interweaving stories of three women as they resolve relationship issues. 

Emma Taylor has come to Paris from Sydney to visit her grandmother, Mattie. Emma believes that her mother, Corrine, was going to tell Emma about her father but Corinne died before the story could be revealed. All Emma has is a photograph of her mother in a field which she hopes may lead to the discovery of the identity of her father.

Charlotte Marigny has made the journey to Paris from London where she works as a garden designer. French born Charlotte seeks solace in Paris as she takes time to consider complications that have arisen in her marriage.

Arielle Lunel lives in Paris and enjoys working in the flower market. Her husband died several years earlier and she is now rebuilding her life and looking after her twins. Then her parents-in-law arrive with a proposal to take and educate her children.

As Emma's grandfather's garden had been neglected since his death three years earlier, Emma decides to make this secret garden her project while she is visiting Paris. In the process she meets Charlotte and Arielle who provide assistance and encouragement as she restores the garden. A mutual friendship develops through their love of flowers and also as they help Emma with her family history search.

In A Secret Garden in Paris, Sophie Beaumont has shown gardens not only to be places of beauty and tranquility for all to enjoy but uses them as the setting for the characters to come to terms with problems and situations they are facing. Their involvement with gardens and flowers helps each of the women to find peace and solutions to the challenges of life and also makes it an enjoyable book to read.

Many thanks to Better Reading and Ultimo Press for a preview copy of this book.

Girl Falling

Finn and Daphne have been friends since school but, although a friendship of sorts continues, they have grown apart. Finn continues to live at home and has a job guiding people on walks in the mountains when she is not serving coffee in the local cafe. Daphne, however, has gone to University and is now working towards her PhD. They occasionally meet up when Daphne returns home but meanwhile Finn has made new friends, especially Magdu who studying psychology at university.

Finn and Daphne enjoy rock climbing and it is decided to invite Magdu to join them. Then Magdu falls. Is it suicide or is it an accident?

Told in the first person by Finn, we gradually learn of events that have occurred in the past as well as the current events. In Girl Falling, Hayley Scrivenor has produced a psychological thriller as past events defining the friendship between Finn and Daphne are gradually revealed. Descriptions of the landscape add to the build up of tension. This is a novel that should be read with few interruptions.

Fool me twice: two twisty mysteries

In Fool Me Twice, Benjamin Stevenson has written two 150 page suspense stories with a twist. Make sure that you allow time to read each story in one go.

Claudette has retired from the police force to work on a secret project for the FBI where she uses the internet to monitor social media sites used by young people suspected of planning to commit a crime. Then one day her two children do not come home. Her daughter's school bag is discovered near the school along with a sign on the footpath, written in blood, Find Us. For Claudette the nightmare begins as she and the police endeavour to discover the whereabouts of the children and to rescue them.

Then flip the book over to read the second story, Last One to Leave. Seven people, including Ryan, have been selected to enter a competition with the prize being an expensive house. The catch is that, when in the house, they must keep one hand permanently on a wall. Removing the hand eliminates the participant from the competition which has been organised by three young men who are filming the event for viewing on the internet. When one of the competitors dies mid-way through the competition Ryan endeavours to establish who is the murderer while continuing to keep the competition rules.

Both these stories keep the reader guessing until the end.

The Rising Down: lives in a Sussex Landscape

In The Rising Down, Alexandra Harris uses a variety of sources to examine the history of the county where she spent much of her life. She discovered that local records, inscriptions, plaques in churches, old books, census records, correspondence, newspaper reports, court documents plus the landscape can all provide clues to the lives of generations of people who lived in the region.

Alexandra Harris shows how even what may appear to be a small clue can lead to the discovery of another part of local history.  Local government records provide references to generations of families who lived in a house or village. Records also outline the affects of agricultural changes in the area on the local population resulting in many in the emigration of many families to Australia and Canada, often via emigration schemes devised to lessen the impact of the unemployed on the local community. Some of the inhabitants also went to Australia as convicts.

Another topic is the effect of the Second World War on the county with the threat of German aircraft dropping bombs, the arrival of troops training before going to France. A house where intelligence personnel stayed before going to or returning from France. Attempts made to protect the county from German invasion.

The author examines the works of artists and writers who lived in or spent time in the area for the influence of the county on their work. Her exploration uncovers many well known names including John Constable, William Cowper, William Blake, Virginia Woolf, Ford Madox Ford and Ivon Hitchens who lived in or visited part of Sussex. But it is often following clues about the lives of the local residents that can lead to discoveries of local history significance. She was often surprised when her discoveries took her to places or objects that she had known as a child but never properly examined.

Although I found many of her local discoveries about Sussex interesting, I was particularly interested in the research patterns used to find the information. This book about the significance of local history in Sussex should inspire many interested in local and family history to carefully examine clues that might help explain the lives of  people from the past and the communities where they lived.

The Turn of Midnight

Towards the end of 1348 in many parts of Dorsetshire the Black Death still prevails. There have been thousands of deaths throughout England but some communities have remained relatively safe due to enforced isolation and the introduction of hygiene measures. Develish, managed by Lady Anne, is one such community.

Although the people of Develish are safe they will shortly run out of supplies of food so several of the men form a party to bring back much needed supplies to the community. They had already investigated the fate of neighbouring villages so had a good idea where they could locate supplies of wheat as well as herds of sheep. 

Thaddeus Thurkell and Lady Anne hoped to purchase the neighbouring deserted demense of Pedle Hinton and eventually merge the two communities. When Thaddeus, masquerading as Lady Anne's cousin, was betrayed by a former Develish employee, Lady Anne left Develish to intercede on Thaddeus' behalf.

Minette Walters is primarily known as a crime writer so throughout this medieval world faced with destruction that she has created, there is growing tension as this second book in the series reaches its climax. The roles of the gentry versus their serfs, the ability of serfs to earn their freedom, the belief of male superiority over women, the importance of literacy for all, the role of the clergy to impose their views on the rest of the community and the consequences when challenged are some of the themes covered in this two book series.

The Turn of Midnight (published 2018) by Minette Walters is the sequel to The Last Hours (published 2017). They were therefore written shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world.

The Last Hours

 

Dorsetshire in 1348 and a strange plague is infecting the inhabitants resulting in thousands of deaths. What causes it and how how has it come to their region?

In The Last Hours by Minette Walters we meet the inhabitants of Develish who, led by Lady Anne, work tirelessly to prevent this new disease from entering their community. Her husband, Sir Richard, has ridden off to visit another community and returns when he is ill from the plague. He is refused admittance for fear that he will bring the disease to Develish. 

Sir Richard had insisted that a moat should be build around the community and this was instrumental in protecting Develish. When she married Sir Richard, Lady Anne had insisted that new hygiene measures such as an outside latrine should be constructed which also helped protect her people from the spreading of illness in general. Lady Anne had also taught the people of Develish to read and write, against the wishes of her husband. Develish is therefore able to cut itself off from the surrounding countryside and keep the disease at bay. But for how long?

Much of the novel involves the attempts of Thaddeus Thurkel and five boys from Develish who set off on an expedition to locate supplies needed if the people of Develish are to survive the winter. Meanwhile Lady Anne, with the assistance of several of the senior men, continue to keep the villagers safe.

Minette Walters provides graphic descriptions of the effects of the Black Death in wiping out entire communities, yet some people were able to resist the plague. Thaddeus and some of the other characters attempt to work out how the plague has come into their lives in the first place.

The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters is the sequel to The Last Hours.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

China in the fifteenth century. Eight year old Yunxian Tan lives with her parents where she is taught how to be a lady by her mother, Respectful Lady. This is the age of foot-binding for girls from a young age if they are to marry into a family that will bring respect and add value to their family.

Yunxian's grandparents are doctors. Male doctors are not allowed to physically examine women but question them from behind an opaque screen. Female doctors, like her grandmother, have no such restrictions except when blood is involved. They can assist at a birth but only a midwife can deliver a child or have anything to do with blood. Yunxian begins to learn about medicine from her grandmother.

When observing a birth Yunxian meets Meiling, the daughter of the midwife, and the girls become friends although they are from different backgrounds and obstacles to their remaining friends are often put in their way. At the age of eight, Yunxian is betrothed to the son of a merchant family. At fifteen she will be married, will move to a new home and will be expected to produce a male heir for her husband's family.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See is a story of female friendship and trust in a world dominated by men. The women have to rely upon each other for support in this class structured environment. Meiling and Yunxian begin to realise that over the years they have formed and relied on a circle of women who help each other.

The section by the author at the end of the book explains that the novel is based on the life of Yunxian Tan who was a female doctor in China in the fifteenth century and published a book about some of her cases. After locating a copy of a translation of the book and researching about life for women in fifteenth century China, this novel of historical fiction was written.

Useful information about some of the issues in the book and general background can be found on the author's website at LisaSee.com

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is the book read by the Monash Alumni Book Club in October.

In Hot Water

Dr Paul E Hardisty, CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) for six years, has written In Hot Water: the inside battle to save the Great Barrier Reef. In this book he describes the work being done to save the Great Barrier Reef so far and what must be done to continue this work in the future.

Much of the book looks at the attempts to provide the facts as to the health of the reef and factors that affect its health and decline. One of the big challenges is to counter the disinformation from some sources about global warming and man made threats to some parts of the reef.

As well as describing the scientific work being undertaken to provide a future for the reef, the author explains attempts undertaken during the past century or more to study parts of the Great Barrier Reef and to preserve it for the future. Having spent many holidays in far north Queensland I was particularly interested to read of research being carried out at the Low Isles and Dunk Island early in the twentieth century, including the recommendation for establishing a marine park.

Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef 1928-1929

Heartsease

Nelly (Ellen) has arranged to meet her sister, Lot, at a silent retreat in the Tasmanian mountains. As usual Lot (Charlotte) is late. On arrival participants are directed to their rooms where they unpack then wait in the lounge. Each participant takes something that is precious to them into the lounge and they are not to speak to anyone. Nelly waits patiently and observes the arrival of the other participants.

This book, largely about the complexities of grief and its varying affects on different people, is told in intersecting layers. Nelly's story is told in the first person in a time frame that leads to her death. Lot's story is told in the third person and in real time. It took me quite a while to work out the pattern and development of the plot but eventually it made sense.

Nelly was fourteen when her mother died and was looked after by her sister who was eight years older. Each of the girls reacted differently to their mother's death with Nelly never really being able to lead a settled life. It is further complicated by Nelly being aware of another prescence, the ghost of her mother. Nelly shares a house with Josh who is also a confused individual. They both rely on alcohol and drugs.

Nelly has complex memories of her mother and her mother's relationship with her two daughters. She has a vivid memory of her her mother planting a plant for each daughter - a serene regal rose for Lot and prickly wild rose for Nelly. Lot assures Nelly that this memory is not correct. Actually the mother planted heartsease, a plant representing peace of mind and tranquility, for her younger daughter.

Both Nelly and Lot are able to communicate with each other without words which is an advantage when they meet at the retreat. They decide to escape for a while and head off to a local hotel where they can talk properly about their lives now and in the past.

Heartsease by Kate Kruimink is a study of grief, love, interaction with family members and the bonds between sisters. It also looks at the impact of organ donation on family members. By the end of the novel I had become involved in the account of the challenges faced by the characters.

Kate Kruimink on writing Heartsease - Macmillan Books