View The Trailer
Thank you to Dion Cavallaro, Paul Thomas for filming, and Brittney O'Loghlen for 'Tess'
Tour Schedule
Adelaide & Surrounds 4th - 11th Dec 2024
Salisbury Wed 4th Dec 2pm - Reserve your Spot!
Seaford Library Thu 5th Dec 6pm - Reserve your Spot!
Ngutungka West Lakes library - Tue 10th Dec 11am - Reserve your Spot!
Murray Bridge Library Wed 11th Dec 10am - Call to Reserve your Spot!
Marion Cultural Centre Wed 11th Dec 6.30pm - Reserve your Spot!
Amid the rising flood waters of the Murray River and shearers’ strike violence, can one brave woman reclaim her future? From an Australian bestselling author comes a riveting historical adventure about one woman’s journey from a life of isolation to one of love and acceptance.
1894, Echuca, Victoria
Tess Hawthorn is a woman on the run from her abusive husband. All she has to do is get on the riverboat Victor and she will be free.
But with tensions at an all-time high between unionist shearers and Scabs, Tess isn’t the only person trying to board a boat under the cover of night. When a brawl erupts between the union and non-union men, Tess is mistaken as a fellow Scab and in the chaos pulled aboard the PS Rodney — the same boat her husband was headed for.
The last person Bram Kempster expects to see on board is Tess Hawthorn, the girl he’s loved from afar since they were young. But he can’t afford to get distracted, not when he’s on an urgent trip to Renmark. Tess didn’t want him back then and, if her haughty behaviour is anything to go by, she certainly doesn’t want him now.
But childhood hurts are the least of their problems. The continent is a tinderbox of violence and bloodshed waiting to ignite, and at home the Murray River is rising fast. Can they overcome their past in time to work together and survive?
Welcome to the world of
Darry Fraser
A best-selling Australian author who masterfully weaves tales of historical adventure set against the rich backdrop of Australian history. With a passion for empowering, feminist-driven narratives, Darry brings to life the courage, resilience, and spirit of women in her gripping stories. Whether you're familiar with her work or discovering it for the first time, get ready to be captivated by her vivid characters and the rich landscapes of a past era, where adventure and empowerment intertwine.
View The Milliner of Bendigo Trailer
Thank you to Four Point Films for this videography masterpiece.
1898: Bendigo, Victoria
Evie Emerson has worked hard to build a fashionable clientele for her hats in the booming city of Bendigo. But when an ex-paramour employs underhanded tactics after his attempt to coerce an engagement fails, Evie’s reputation is in tatters. On the heels of having to put a case together to defend herself in court, Evie’s life is thrown into further turmoil when the disappearance of her sister takes her to Cobram.
Roving reporter Fitzmorgan O’Shea has troubles of his own: his involvement in uncovering police corruption has placed a target on his back. And while Fitz is hunting a new story in Cobram his problems collide with Evie’s when his research exposes malicious intimidation and threats designed to make local landholders give up their properties.
For Raffety Dolan, he accepted long ago it’s Fitz Evie loves – and his feelings will remain unrequited. But when a disgraced ex-policeman comes searching for revenge, Raff is ready to step in and save his friends.
There, on the banks of the mighty Murray, with so much misunderstood history and secrets between the three friends plus the legitimate threat of being shot at – will they survive long enough to discover the truth?
Readers are saying...
Widow Marcella Ross won't let anything – or anyone - stop her from discovering the truth behind a deadly family mystery...
1898, South Australia
At the gateway to the Flinders Ranges lies Kanyaka Station, once a thriving sheep and cattle property, now abandoned and in ruins. But a discovery in her late mother’s papers draws recently widowed Marcella Ross out to its remote landscape in search of clues to the disappearance of her Uncle Luca, an Italian immigrant whose fate seems to have been bound up in that of his mysterious partner – also long-since vanished. When Marcella is nearly run over by a daunting stranger, she discovers he too is entangled in the secrets of the past. When tragedy and obsession threaten Marcella’s fragile independence, how far will she have to go to unlock the secrets of Kanyaka – or solve the puzzle of her own future?
1955
After learning that they are unlikely to have children, Frances and Joe MacDonald have taken the unusual step of buying a caravan and travelling together through the outback. They stop at Kanyaka Station, where Fran becomes mesmerised by the past. Family lore holds that an ancestor met an untimely end amid the desolate ruins. But what truly happened, and to whom, at the isolated station? As fate alters the course of her life, Fran's footsteps echo another woman's from so long ago ...
As the mystery unravels, will these two women have the chance to take control of their own destinies?
Big thanks to Four Point Films & Co once again for the fab book trailer. Amazing; I love it. Thanks also to
Classic Carriage Drives - Libby and Indiana, and to the the wonderful site that is Kanyaka ruins, South Australia
Darry's Book Collection
Fiction set in Australian history. Empowering, feminist adventure.
"From the very earliest I can remember, I was transfixed by stories. Those would have been the ones Mum read to me when I was a little kid. My imagination had been fired and soon I became a storyteller, not just an avid listener (and eventually, reader)."
Released December 2021
Released December 2020
Released May 2020