Currawong Manor
Page 37
The Heart Garden by Janine Burke (Vintage Australia, Random House 2005)
Dear Sun by Janine Burke (Vintage Australia, Random House 2001)
Joy Hester by Janine Burke (Vintage Australia, Random House 2001)
Rose Lindsay: A Model Life by Rose Lindsay, editor Lin Bloomfield (Odana editions 2001)
Portrait of Pa by Jane Lindsay (Odana editions 2007)
A Suburban Girl: Australia 1918-1948 by Moira Lambert (Macmillan Australia 1990)
Sunday’s Kitchen Food & Living at Heide by Lesley Harding and Kendrah Morgan (Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing Limited 2011)
Sunday’s Garden Growing Heide by Lesley Harding and Kenddrah Morgan (Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing Limited 2012)
Charleston a Bloomsbury House and Garden by Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson (Frances Lincoln 2004)
Australian Big Cats by Rebecca Lang and Mike Williams (Strange Nation Publishing 2010)
Blackheath – today from yesterday by the Rotary Club of Blackheath Inc. (Whitelight 2005 for the Rotary Club of Blackheath inc. 2005)
Native Plants of the Blue Mountains by Margaret Baker and Robin Corringham (Bower Bird Books Three Sisters Productions Pty. Ltd. Winmalee NSW 2004)
Sally Mann, Immediate Family by Reynolds Price (Phaidon Press Ltd. 1993)
What Remains by Sally Mann (Little Brown and Company 2003)
It’s impossible to thank everyone in these acknowledgments who have kept my spirits high and believed in me as I’ve worked away in my writing shed for years, but I’m most grateful to all teaching staff and parents at my daughter’s school at St Pius Enmore (both past and present) who have cheered and spread the word about my books. You are all appreciated and valued. In particular Cathie Blinman for making me realise again that books are medicine for the soul. Also Annie Mistler, Michele Carton, Michelle Squire and Rhondda Hollis.
The Magic Hatters, my book club, who continue to meet at Better Read than Dead in Newtown for sparkling soul-food conversation.
Writers who have kept my chin up, including Belinda Alexandra, Amanda Holohan and Anna Romer. And the readers around the world who connect with me on social networking sites or through snail mail – your interactions continue to elevate and enrich the process.
Family members who believe in my writing, my mother Barbara, my sisters Catherine and Gabrielle. Anne and George Levell and John Franklin. And although my father is deceased, I still continue to draw strength from his love of books and his unending belief in me.
Selwa, Linda and Brian who present a formidable team. I remain honoured to be a small part of your literary agency world.
And most of all – to Daisy and David. You give my life immeasurable depth, sparkle and uncountable blessings. I do the work greatly nourished and comforted that you both are near.
Finally, hats off to all booksellers, book buyers and librarians. You make the magic happen.
And in the best of mystery traditions, please don’t reveal the secrets of Currawong Manor to others.
Warmest Love
Josephine Pennicott
Sydney, 2014
www.josephinepennicott.com
About Josephine Pennicott
Josephine Pennicott is a multi-award-winning writer in the crime genre. Her story ‘Birthing the Demons’ won the 2001 Scarlet Stiletto, ‘Shadows’ won the 2012 Scarlet Stiletto and she has won the Kerry Greenwood Domestic Malice Prize twice, with ‘Hail Mary’ (2003) and ‘Tadpole’ (2004). Josephine’s debut mystery novel, Poet’s Cottage, set in a Tasmanian sea-fishing village, was an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards for Australian crime fiction.
Josephine’s first three novels were in the dark fantasy genre: Circle of Nine, Bride of the Stone and A Fire in the Shell. Circle of Nine was named as one of 2001’s best debut novels in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (Terri Windling & Ellen Datlow, editors).
Born in Tasmania, Josephine’s early years were spent in Papua New Guinea. She has worked in a range of jobs (including nurse, housemaid, life-drawing model and sales assistant) and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales.
Josephine lives in Sydney, Australia, with her partner David Levell and their daughter Daisy.
Josephine’s website, Tale Peddler, is www.josephinepennicott.com.
Also by Josephine Pennicott
Poet’s Cottage
Josephine Pennicott
Poet’s Cottage
When Sadie inherits Poet’s Cottage, she sets out to discover all she can about her notorious grandmother, Pearl Tatlow. Pearl, a children’s writer who scandalised 1930s Tasmania, was violently murdered in the cellar and her killer never found.
Sadie grew up with a loving version of Pearl through her mother, but her aunt Thomasina tells a different story, one of a self-obsessed, abusive and licentious woman.
As Sadie and her daughter Betty work to uncover the truth, strange events begin to occur in the cottage. And as the terrible secret in the cellar threads its way into the present day, it reveals a truth more shocking than the decades-long rumours.
Poet’s Cottage is a beautiful and haunting mystery of families, bohemia, truth, creativity, lies, memory and murder.
First published 2014 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Josephine Pennicott 2014
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
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781743530412
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group, Queensland
Cover design by Nada Backovic
Cover images: Shutterstock, top image © Malgorzata Maj / Arcangel Images, bottom image © Mark Owen / Arcangel Images
The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Cover
About Currawong Manor
Title page
Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue – Secrets
Chapter 1 – Funeral of a Flower
Chapter 2 – Smoke and Flames
Chapter 3 – Aspiration and Desire
Chapter 4 – The Devil’s Flower
Chapter 5 – Truth and Beauty
Chapter 6 – The Frosts Return
Chapter 7 – Through the Blue Door
Chapter 8 – Bones of the Lost Boys
Chapter 9 – The Flowers of the Towers
Chapter 10 – The Imperfections of Light
Chapter 11 – Ducks and Swans
Chapter 12 – The Blood Market
Chapter 13 – Melancholy Monday
Chapter 14 – Roots of Evil and the Winter Witch
Chapter 15 – The Land of Goodies
Chapter 16 – A Visit from Ma
Chapter 17 – Gum Tree Ghosts
Chapter 18 – Trollop
Chapter 19 – Dinner at Mount Olympus
Chapter 20 – Invisible Moths and Secret Tides
Chapter 21 – Trespassers
&n
bsp; Chapter 22 – Death in the Mirror
Chapter 23 – At the Flicks
Chapter 24 – Circus
Chapter 25 – Death’s Garden
Chapter 26 – The Wrong Path
Chapter 27 – Tea with a White Rabbit
Chapter 28 – How Does Your Garden Grow?
Chapter 29 – Death at Mermaid Glen
Chapter 30 – Dolly’s Story
Chapter 31 – Woman’s Mouth to Woman’s Ear
Chapter 32 – The Angry Ghosts
Chapter 33 – The Peppermint Tree
Chapter 34 – Some Sunny Day
Chapter 35 – The Mother of Beauty
Acknowledgments
About Josephine Pennicott
Also by Josephine Pennicott
Copyright page