A Time of Secrets (50 page)
Authors: Deborah Burrows
Thanks also to my fabulous agent, Sheila Drummond.
It is impossible to overstate the support and assistance given by the team at Pan Macmillan Australia: Haylee Nash, Cate Paterson, Samantha Sainsbury and Eve Jackson to name but a few. And my sincere thanks go to Ali Lavau, editor extraordinaire.
Finally, this novel is also dedicated to the tough, resourceful and courageous Australian men who volunteered for ‘special and secret’ missions in the South West Pacific theatre. They went into danger that is now almost impossible to comprehend. Too many never came home. Lest we forget.
About Deborah Burrows
Deborah Burrows is a lawyer, historian and writer from Perth. She is currently based in Oxford and writing full-time. Her first novel,
A Stranger in My Street
, was published in 2012, followed by
Taking a Chance
in 2013. She was inspired to write about Australia in World War II by her mother’s stories of dancing with American servicemen in Perth. Her father’s exploits as a commando fighting in East Timor and New Guinea with the famed 2/2nd Independent Company were an inspiration for
A Time of Secrets
.
Also by Deborah Burrows
A Stranger in My Street
Taking a Chance
More bestselling fiction from Deborah Burrows
A Stranger in My Street
It’s January 1943. Australia is at war and Perth is buzzing.
US troops have arrived, in what local men refer to bitterly as the ‘American occupation’, and Perth women are having the time of their lives. The Americans have money, accents like movie stars, good manners, and young women are throwing caution to the wind and pushing social boundaries.
The war has brought nothing but heartbreak for Meg Eaton, however, stealing her young love eighteen months ago. Until, that is, she meets her lost lover’s brother, Tom – standing over a body in her neighbour’s backyard.
Suddenly, Meg finds herself embroiled in the murder mystery, and increasingly involved with Tom Lagrange. But is he all that he seems? And what exactly was his relationship with the dead woman?
Praise for Deborah Burrows:
‘Murder, mystery and romance weave a web of intrigue through the tensions and prejudices of wartime Australia. A rewarding read, I loved it’ LIZ BYRSKI
‘With great characters and atmosphere, what follows is clever and rewarding’ WEEKEND GOLD COAST BULLETIN
‘a novel worthy of some of the world’s top crime writers. With her background in medical law and history, Burrows effortlessly and authentically recreates time and place. Rarely is a first novel so accomplished’ GOOD READING
Taking a Chance
Perth, 1943.
A time for taking chances.
Eleanor ‘Nell’ Fitzgerald is smart – inside and out. For now, she writes helpful fashion advice for a local rag, but is bursting with ambition and plans to marry her lawyer beau as soon as he returns from wartime service. When she meets the handsome, famous and oh-so-charming Johnny Horvath of the American Press Corps, she finds herself dragged into a murder mystery.
Convicted of the murder of her artist lover, Lena Mitrovic is languishing in Fremantle Gaol. Johnny is sure of Lena’s innocence and ropes in Nell to help him find the truth. During their investigation, they uncover some seedy secrets of wartime Perth: the other side of the ‘American Occupation.’ Girls and young women have been throwing caution to the wind, entering into romances and liaisons with the visiting servicemen.
And Nell soon discovers that not everybody has good intentions . . .
Praise for
A Stranger in my Street
:
‘Burrows draws on her work and life experiences to craft this interesting and entertaining story. A fine debut novel’ HERALD SUN
‘A compelling combination of murder mystery and a tender romance’ WEST AUSTRALIAN
‘This is one of those books where you think – I’ll just read to the end of this chapter before I put out the light – and then you find you just have to go on reading’ LIZ BYRSKI
First published 2015 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Deborah Burrows 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
EPUB format: 9781743536902
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
Cover design by Nada Backovic
Cover images: © Elisabeth Ansley/Arcangel Images,
© Jill Battaglia/Dreamstime, Canstock
The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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