Publisher: 27th October 2021 by Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA
Pages: 384 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, mystery
My Rating: 5 cups
Synopsis:
A fossil discovered at London's Natural History Museum leads one woman back in time to nineteenth century Australia and a world of scientific discovery and dark secrets in this compelling historical mystery.
Wollombi, The Hunter Valley 1847
The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is running through the bush as a monster chases her - but no one believes her story. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist with a dream. She is convinced she will one day find proof the great sea dragons - the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur - swam in the vast inland sea that millions of years ago covered her property at Bow Wow Gorge, and soon Mellie shares that dream for she loves fossil hunting too...
1919
When Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War 1 with the intention of making her peace with her father and commemorating the death of her two younger brothers in the trenches, her reception is not as she had hoped. Looking for distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History museum and her brothers which leads her to Bow Wow Gorge. But the gorge has a sinister reputation - 70 years ago people disappeared. So when PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, it seems as if the past is reaching into the present and she becomes determined to discover what really happened all that time ago...
My Thoughts
‘In this moment she recognised that her curiosity about the past - this house, Bow Wow Gorge, its fossils and Anthea Winstanley - had become a consuming passion. Who was the elusive woman and what had made her leave this place?’
A new Australian historical fiction book by Tea Cooper is reason to celebrate as she guarantees great escapism. I have enjoyed all of Tea’s previous works as they have proven to be consistently engaging and masterfully crafted tales of mystery and intrigue.
In her latest offering, The Fossil Hunter, Tea provides the perfect blend of fact and fiction in a riveting historical mystery. Giving her readers a dual narrative timeline set in the years 1847 and 1919, Tea has cleverly placed both people and incidents that let her readers gather all the clues to place together for a satisfying conclusion.
‘You have to be patient. You can look, and look, and see nothing and then the next moment the very thing you’ve been searching for is right in front of your eyes, where it has sat forever. It’s a lot like life.’
I fully appreciated how the mysteries of the past lent beautifully into the present timeline of discovery. I felt the themes ranging from folklore to scientific discoveries, or bullying and PTSD were sensitively presented by Tea. Along with unique characters and family secrets, Tea included such fascinating information on fossil collecting and interesting scientific revelations.
‘Only at Bow Wow, beneath the dense canopy of the trees, did Anthea truly find peace, the place where the layers of life reached back to the beginning of time, before a single human had walked the land, before the earth solidified. From the towering sandstone cliffs to the meandering creek, which over millions of years had carved a narrow winding gorge, the landscape had slowly revealed its secrets.’
Tea is to be congratulated for presenting such an engaging and comprehensive tale. The settings both in England and Australia are authentic, particularly with the incorporation of real life events such as the fossil discoveries in Lyme Regis in England. It is the everyday cultural feel, from traipsing down Bow Wow Gorge in the Hunter Valley, to visiting the Natural Museum in London that Tea effortlessly includes the reader so seamlessly into her riveting tale.
Congratulations Tea on once again proving your prose is up there with the best. From strong protagonists, to family drama and mystery, to the breathtaking vistas of the bush - I highly recommend the tale that is, The Fossil Hunter.
‘PJ took one last look at the dappled gorge and, tucking the fossil in her pocket, left behind the fascinating secrets of Bow Wow Gorge, regret prickling her skin.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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