Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
This is a dual time historical fiction, narrative novel by Jock. The first time period is in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the early 1900’s and the second is in Melbourne, Australia in the year 1993.
Thomas is orphaned at 10 years old when his parents are killed instantly in a motor vehicle accident. Thomas becomes the richest child in Scotland. He eventually marries and has a child. As a result of business engagements, he makes the decision to move to Australia and invest in building a ferry called the ‘Cherrywood.’ He alone moves to Australia to oversee the project and is later joined by his wife and child. But disaster strikes at the launch of the ferry, and the family is forever doomed.
Martha is an intelligent young woman, a lawyer, working in a job she despises. However, because she is so good at it, the firm refuses to give in to her yearning for the department she is most passionate about: human rights. One night, she is led to a pub in an inner suburb called Fitzroy in Melbourne and meets a boy. She feels strangely connected, and when she decides to repeat the visit to meet up with him again, she cannot find the pub. It has simply disappeared. This leads her on an investigative journey about the pub and what she eventually reveals is a purely imaginative long lost unfortunate history of the ‘Cherrywood.’
This is a historical fiction meets fantasy and mystery, and it is extremely well written by Jock. His writing is so well connected throughout the novel it is difficult not to like it. Although I am not a fan of ‘fantasy’ reading, I thought the story was well thought out and beautifully written.
4/5 Stars