Yesterday's Dust: A Mallawindy Novel 3

Yesterday's Dust: A Mallawindy Novel 3
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Pan Australia
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2007-11-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1741971144

In the 1990s, the Burtons are surviving as best they can, but Jack Burton continues to control his fractured family even in his absence. John has returned to Mallawindy unable to forgive his father and haunted by vengeful thoughts. Ann has three young sons and is soon to have another child, but still grieves for her firstborn daughter, Mandy. When the river disgorges what appears to be Jack's body, the family's tumultuous history is stirred up again. The eagerly awaited sequel to Mallawindy continues the story of how even those who escape the town have to fight to escape its dark legacy. 'At the heart of this absorbing tale...is the writer's ability to interweave the country-town propensity for rumour and allegation into a gothic narrative... Yesterday's Dust is lightened by its pinpoint descriptions of people and places, as well as the occasional touch of humour, some of it with a country flavour and some delightfully black'–AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER Is there such a thing as winter beach reading? If so, Joy Dettmans' Yesterday's Dust fits the bill nicely... an author who's well in tune with her subject and audience–WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

Moth to the Flame: A Woody Creek Novel 3

Moth to the Flame: A Woody Creek Novel 3
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Aus.
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2011-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1742626432

The third book in the dark and addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman "She trips the fine line of pleasure and pain that makes her a compulsive read ... Brilliant." Sun Herald In Moth to the Flame, Joy Dettman returns with another dazzling tale of the unforgettable characters of Woody Creek. The year is 1946. The war ended five months ago. Jim Hooper, Jenny Morrison's only love, was lost to that war. And if not for Jenny, he would never have gone. "An eye for an eye," Vern Hooper says. An unforgiving man, Vern wants custody of Jenny's son, his only grandson, and is quietly planning his day in court. Then Jenny's father Archie Foote swoops back into town. Archie offers Jenny a tantalising chance at fame and fortune; one way or another he is determined to play a part in her life. Is Jenny's luck about to change, or is she drawn to trouble like a moth is drawn to the flame? "A story of love and loss, Moth to the Flame captures the reader's attention on the first page and sustains it to a satisfying conclusion." Daily Examiner "Dettman is an effortless, assured and accessible storyteller ... [this] is her most ambitious saga yet" The Saturday Age Fans of Rosalie Ham's The Dressmaker will love Joy Dettman.

Mallawindy: A Mallawindy Novel 1

Mallawindy: A Mallawindy Novel 1
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2007-11-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466837977

Ann Burton was born on a river bank the night her father tried to burn their house down. Six years later her sister Liza disappears while they are staying at their uncle's property. What Ann sees that day robs her of her memory and her speech. Ann escapes her anguished childhood, finding love and a new life away from Mallawindy. But there is no escape from the Burton family and its dark secrets. Ann must return to Mallawindy and confront the past if she is ever to be free.

Yesterday's Dust

Yesterday's Dust
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Pan Australia
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2001
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780330363396

Reissue of a novel first published 2001. Concerns a man's mysterious disappearance from the small town of Mallawindy and his memory's dominance over the lives of his family. His wife waits for him to return at the gate each night until a man's body is found and the family's turbulent history is unearthed. Author's previous titles include 'Mallawindy' and 'Jacaranda Blue'.

Henry's Daughter

Henry's Daughter
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Pan Australia
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2004
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780330364577

Paperback re-issue of novel about a young girl and her family's fight to stay together. Lori Smyth-Own is on the edge of adolescence but feels years older. She has eleven brothers, nine living at home, and the twins who live with Aunty Eva. At home there is never enough of anything, and Lori's mother, Mavis, is so overweight she can barely move. When tragedy strikes, the Smyth-Owen children take desperate measures to save themselves. By the author of 'Jacaranda Blue' and 'Yesterday's Dust'.

The Maharajah's Monkey

The Maharajah's Monkey
Author: Natasha Narayan
Publisher: Quercus
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1623652936

Dark secrets at the maharajah's palace... Lost treasure and a bear attack in the Himalayas . . . And a naughty Indian monkey, filled with an ancient evil . . . When world-famous Explorer Gustav Champlon disappears just before a trip to India to find lost treasure, Kit Salter is determined to discover why. Tiny footprints in Gustav's room put her on the trail of a naughty Indian monkey. Before long she and her friends are aboard a steamer to India, on a quest to find the monkey and save Champlon. Welcomed into the palace of the boy Maharajah, a fabulous adventure ensues: Tiger hunts, court intrigue and a mountain expedition to find the lost paradise of Shambala . . .

Pearl in a Cage

Pearl in a Cage
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2009-11-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466826878

On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman – foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant – is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives. When no relatives come forth to claim the infant, Gertrude's daughter Amber – who has recently lost a son in childbirth – and her husband Norman take the child in. In the ensuing weeks, Norman becomes convinced that God has sent the baby to their door, and in an act of reckless compassion and lonely desperation, he names the baby Jennifer and registers her in place of his son. Loved by some but scorned by more, including her stepmother and sister, Jenny survives her childhood and grows into an exquisite and talented young woman. But who were her parents? Spanning two momentous decades and capturing rural Australia's complex and mysterious heart, Pearl in a Cage is the unputdownable new novel by one of our most talented storytellers.

The Hope Flower

The Hope Flower
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Aus.
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1760985341

From the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series comes a story of love and survival. Lori Smyth-Owen isn't your average teenager - as you'd expect from the only girl in a family of twelve. Or they were a family, until their father took his own life to escape his bed-bound wife, too obese to leave her room. But for Lori and the remaining brothers, there is no escape from their volatile, mentally unstable mother. They raise themselves away from the gaze of the authorities, realising that though abandoned, they are now in charge. They can control everything, including their mother's food intake. In time, their mother emerges, after losing two-thirds of her body weight. But does she bring with her the seed of hope for a better future, or will all hell break loose? 'The texture of the writing as well as the mind-boggling plots give her books a fatally addictive attraction' Saturday Age

Diamonds in the Mud and Other Stories

Diamonds in the Mud and Other Stories
Author: Joy Dettman
Publisher: Pan Australia
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007-11-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 174334564X

The complete short stories of the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series "Pure brilliance. This is a book to keep and treasure - you'll want to read it again and again." Sun-Herald At the beginning of her writing journey, Joy Dettman's charming, irascible, melancholy, wisecracking characters appeared in over twenty unique tales, many of which have won awards, many of which have never been published. Now, for the first time, Diamonds in the Mud and Other Stories is the complete collection of Joy Dettman's exquisite short stories. We meet an old coot in a rusty ute who picks up a hitchhiker, a neighbour reaches across the language divide to lend a helping hand, a grave digger might just have saved a young man's life, an exhausted farmer's wife lusts after a china cup, Granny Jordan is losing her marbles and an author is troubled by rats under the floorboards. Since Joy's first novel, Mallawindy, was published in 1998 she has attracted a growing number of readers who are entertained and shocked by her array of unforgettable characters populating the Australian landscape. "Dettman writes compulsively readable stories" The Age Fans of Rosalie Ham's The Dressmaker will love Joy Dettman.