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CROSS, Mary Talbot

Aug 27, 2024 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Adelaide, Australian, Fiction \ Novel, Historical Fiction, Romance Fiction, South Australia

The Founding Book Cover
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ISBN 978-1-923214-64-4
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The Foundling

A tale of the Burra Burra Mine

With Fortune’s Fool: The road beyond Eureka

Re-published as a single volume, The Foundling and Fortune’s Fool paint an authentic picture of South Australia and Victoria in the formative years of European settlement, and describe a young woman’s compelling journey of self-discovery from the social injustices of the Burra Burra to the challenges of Ballaarat and beyond.

THE FOUNDLING. Abandoned as a baby, taunted as a child, Julia Stephen – the Foundling of the title – learns to survive in the West Country of England until her adoptive Methodist family sets sail for South Australia in the earliest years of European settlement, in search of a better life.

Necessity takes them north, to work for the South Australian Mining Association of the Burra Burra, whose regime rates the workforce far below the appeal of profi ts. When Julia settles in the Company township called Kooringa, her past returns to haunt her.

Who is the mysterious packman from Julia’s Devon childhood who follows her through the streets of Kooringa township? What is the grim secret she uncovers in the dank squalor of a dugout in the Burra Burra Creek?

FORTUNE’S FOOL. Ballaarat in the goldrush of the early 1850s. A place of glittering promise and deep despair; where hidden resentments will swell into open rebellion against the colonial government in December 1854.

Into this male-dominated sex-starved shantytown comes Miss Julia Stephen, seeking her Cornish lover. Quick-witted, resourceful – and unscrupulous – she becomes one of the most successful women on the Victorian diggings. When tensions erupt into bloody rebellion at Eureka, Julia Stephen’s life is transformed beyond her wildest dreams.

About the Author

Mary Talbot Cross was born in Devon, England, and is a graduate of Scotland’s Aberdeen University. She has written four novels set in historical times; in addition to The Foundling and Fortune’s Fool, Fate Knows No Tears tells the story of the Edwardian poet ‘Laurence Hope,’ while Resurgence is the author’s tribute to South-west France. Mary Talbot Cross is the pseudonym of the historian Jennifer M.T. Carter. She lives in Burra.

TAYLOR, Bill

Aug 15, 2024 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Comedy \ Humour Fiction, Fiction \ Novel, South Australia, Travel \ Tourism \ Adventure

Driver’s Holiday Book Cover
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ISBN 978-1-923589-64-3
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More Driver

From Bali Bliss to Darwin Danger: Albert Driver ’s Back in the Pilot’s Seat and Flying into Trouble.

 

Albert Driver has briefly left his Bali tourist venture to visit Darwin to meet Roger Casey, a member of his original tour group. Roger proposes a business association and tells Albert about a helicopter tragedy which has killed Ian Steele, the husband of the lovely Bethleen, the daughter of Kev Clancy the car man now Sir Kevin.

At a Darwin café later that day Roger introduces Albert to Boots, a pilot who is about to fly to Indonesia in a stolen plane.

On his return to Bali, Albert finds that his wife has left him and that Bethleen and her family will be coming to Bali for a holiday. Later, they met Tjokorda Agung, a charming Balinese prince who gets on famously with Kev, and Kev and Albert decide to go into business together.

Albert meets Boots again who agrees to fly some of Kev’s purchases back to Australia. To his surprise Albert becomes a passenger on the plane back along with an unconventional air crew.

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ISBN 978-1-923156-91-3
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Driver’s Holiday

Entertaining, fun and light hearted

Tourism in Bali in the 70s was in its infancy as was Albert Driver’s employment as a tour leader.

After a confidence boost stemming from his time with lovely Bethleen Steele, and the help of Sudi (his beautiful Balinese assistant), Albert led a motley group of Australian salesman on a life-changing tour.

 

A beautiful but mysterious island, the group had to overcome disease, unhappy deities and bursts of undisciplined behaviour from some members to finish the tour.

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About the Author

 

Bill Taylor has lived most of his life in South Australia, either in Adelaide or on Kangaroo Island. He has also spent extended times away from Australia, including in France, where this tale was first written, and in Indonesia, particularly Bali, the location of most of the action.

He first went to Bali when tourists were a novelty and children would line up to cheer motor cyclists passing through their village. Certainly not the case now. He practised as a lawyer for much of his adult life and is now retired.

He has been married for more than fifty years to Caroline, who surely must be a saint. They have two adult children and five grandchildren.

JUKE, Valerie

Jul 15, 2024 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Christian, Fiction \ Novel, New South Wales

Two Doors Book Cover
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ISBN 978-1-923214-02-06
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Two Doors

 

The secrets behind closed doors

Alongside their mother, the Reverend’s four adult children watch him as he preaches. But whose words is he preaching?

To the world, Minister Gallagher is a hard-working, caring community leader. But who is really caring?

Who does the hard work and who holds the hands of the members of the congregation in their times of need?

And whose hands are not being held?

His silent children’s yearnings betray
the expectations of their mother and the
congregation. Can they ever be revealed?

Will their secrets remain forever behind closed doors?

Vivienne Jolliffe author photo

About the Author

 

VALERIE JUKES was born on 29th March 1935 in the small town of Monmouth by the Monnow River
in Wales to where she lived out her childhood.

21 years later she was to marry the love of her life James Jukes on 19th August 1956 taking James’ last name as her own.

Valerie and James lived a fulfilling life starting their family in Wales and taking the brave move with their children to Australia. James and Valerie stuck to their vows and spent the rest of their lives together.

DOWNES, Michael

Jul 8, 2024 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Fiction \ Novel, Thriller Fiction

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ISBN 978-1-923214-87-3
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The Introspective Detective

 

Unravelling the murder requires him to confront his own past and future

INTROSPECTIVE. characterised by the examination of one’s own thoughts and feelings: thoughtfully reflective: too often considered a sign of weakness when it should be an indication of strength.

A man found murdered on the last Melbourne Metro train to Hurstbridge. Detective Inspector Robin Lazelle, a thirty-year homicide veteran, leads the investigation.

Lazelle has grown up in a dysfunctional family and for the whole of his life has a voided crowds and noises and is more at home in solitude. He is not in any way gregarious. At the same time, he is admired by his colleagues and considered almost indispensable because of his amazing skills as a detective. He may not be a ‘people person’, but he certainly can find the ‘bad guy’.

This difficult case with its twists and turns challenges Lazelle and his team. For the man himself, now near retirement, it causes him to reexamine his life, his future, and his feelings about himself and for others.

The murder investigation, the unusual weapon, and the person involved, many within the medical fraternity at St. Bart’s Hospital, uncovers more victims than only the deceased. It is full of intrigue, emotional abuse and sexual impropriety that affects the livers of the people involved, both among the investigators and the investigated.

From the Author

Although this is an intriguing murder mystery, I wrote this book about the man… the introspective detective. His story is the focus.

It deals with many issues that many men near retirement or having already retired might identify with. It is a reflection about life and living when we get older. In this case, the detective, Robin Lazelle, has many issues because of his past childhood, the death of a sister when he was just a teenager, becoming a very good detective and learning to get on as best he could with other people.

I guess when you are an author in your eighties, a lot of what you write is from personally knowing people in such positions and having experienced many feelings yourself. The work is pure fiction, but personal feelings obviously influence an author when writing a book.

Michael Downes

MAY, Greta

Jun 27, 2024 | Adelaide, Australian, Fiction \ Novel, South Australia

Bleeding Hearts Book Cover
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ISBN 978-1-923214-30-9
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Bleeding Hearts

 

Some people are born violent, others have violence thrust upon them.

The Riots and the Scorpions split the small town of Bleeding Hearts Grove in two. A town named after a native foliage with heart-shaped pink flowers, now known for literal bleeding hearts due to the constant gang violence.

Patrick and Violet are both bloodborne heirs to their brutal gang legacy and natural enemies. When the pair bond over political differences with their elders, they must help one another escape death at the hands of a hundred years of rivalry.

Their forbidden love only making their ambition more illicit and treacherous.

About the Author

As a beaten down tattoo apprentice, Greta May found solace in day dreaming. She dreamed of a small town riddled with gang violent and a generation Z Romeo and Juliet, named Violet and Patrick. When she rebelled against the typically abusive nature of the South Australian tattoo industry, she found great success on her own. Greta earned great achievement through tattooing, but soon remembered the day dream that was Bleeding Hearts. She felt she owed it to women like Charlotte Brontë who fought for women’s voices when it came to literature. She wrote Bleeding Hearts with the home others can also find comfort and excitement during times of oppression and gloom.

SHARMA, Terri-lee

Jun 27, 2024 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Fiction \ Novel, Romance Fiction, Western Australia

Citrus Hues book cover
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ISBN 978-1-923214-55-2
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Citrus Hues

 

Can fate preclude destiny?

The girls listened tentatively as Maatla told them about the tangelo, the clementine and his favourite, the honeybell, which is a mix of a sweet tangerine flavour and the sour flavour of the tart grapefruit.

“The honeybell is like life,” he said, “a mix of sweet and sour. We can feel hope and love, yet sometimes we experience hate and despair.”

Rows of citrus trees laden with colourful fruit create the perfect playground for Janco and Naledi, two young children who are inseparable friends. But Piet, Janco’s father and the owner of the South African estate, does not want his son mingling with the farm workers’ children. Piet’s upbringing and deeply ingrained prejudice lead him to make it clear that a lion and a zebra do not drink from the same waterhole.

But over the years, the children’s friendship blossoms into forbidden love. Janco explains to Naledi that every snowflake is unique and destined to fall where it is meant to: they are meant to be together. Then a series of events changes everything. Naledi ends up far away in Australia, a land filled with opportunities and new connections. She refuses to let her past shackle her and is determined to live her life to the fullest. Along the way, she learns that sometimes decisions are taken away from you, but you need to keep moving forward in life to discover what can be. And the choices you make and the chances you take will lead you in the direction in which you need to go.