Synopsis: A blisteringly fast, fresh, funny and hugely entertaining novel of mothers, daughters and one gutsy wild colonial girl who gets caught up in Australia's last female bushranger's quest for revenge. Think Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife meets Trent Dalton.1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling-down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna seems more furious than frightened, and it's the bushranger who's left shaken. And the next day, Anna disappears.
Twelve years later, Anna's daughter, Billie King, is a girl ready to explode. With a missing mother, the rent in arrears and her alcoholic father's gambling debts to cover, she has no time for school. But when child services threaten to remove Billie from her father, she must decide between continuing her search for her missing mother and keeping what's left of her family together. If she fails to hold onto her father, she'll be taken away and placed in a children's home, but if she doesn't find her missing mother, who will?
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To use an Aussie colloquialism - this is a ripper of a debut novel!
The story is told from the point of view of three women - Dulcie, Anna & Billie - as their stories are told and finally converge. This has everything a reader could want - the human element, triumph over adversity, strong female characters, spirit - courage - endurance - all set in post WWI Australia.
I read this in one sitting - the gut wrenching action played out across the pages, drawing me ever deeper into the narrative, until I was so invested in both characters and story, I could see no way but forward till the final pages played their last ace.
If you have read Leah Purcell's "The Drover's Wife" or even watched the film, you will adore this.
One of my top reads for the year! And one I am eager to revisit!
