By: Darry Fraser
Headstrong Prudence North faces a dangerous blackmailer who threatens her family and her dreams of escaping domestic drudgery. An enthralling historical mystery from a bestselling Australian author.
1900, Melbourne, Victoria
Miss Prudence North is freshly returned from university in Scotland and determined to find her place among the male-dominated world of the new forensic sciences when a high-ranking policeman waylays her.
He threatens to charge her father for illegal medical practices unless she helps him build a case against local landowner Jasper Darke by spying on him.
With her sister’s illness worsening, if their income disappears, Prudence will have to take on nursing and domestic duties and she’ll never have the freedom she craves.
Prudence has no choice but to agree.
Immediately taken with the handsome Mr Darke, a seemingly good and honest man, Prudence can’t see what nefarious activities she’s meant to be reporting on. She’ll have to get closer…
But when a body turns up at her father’s surgery, the forensics reveal to Prudence there’s more going on about all this than meets the eye.
It’s clear it’s up to her to uncover the truth – of this murder, of whatever’s going on at the surgery after hours and, especially, of the intriguing Jasper Darke. Her life, her family and her future rely on it.
About the Author
Darry Fraser’s first novel, Daughter of the Murray, is set on her beloved River Murray where she spent part of her childhood near Swan Hill.
Where the Murray River Runs, her second novel, is set in Bendigo in the 1890s, and her third novel, The Widow of Ballarat, takes place on the Ballarat goldfields in the 1850s.
In The Good Woman of Renmark, she takes us to the rural river land of South Australia, while Elsa Goody, Bushranger, journeys from South Australia into Victoria.
In The Last Truehart, the colonies await Federation and the story is set in Victoria and New South Wales. Darry currently lives, works and writes on Kangaroo Island, an awe-inspiring place off the coast of South Australia.
Source: booktopia.com.au
The Prodigal Sister is available from the Swan Hill Regional Library.
