by Peter Watt
At a personal level the continuing thanks go to all my friends in the Clarence Valley Rural Fire Service and others in the volunteer emergency services I have met during the course of my duties.
There has been the ongoing friendship supporting the task of writing from Mick and Andrea Prowse, Kevin Jones OAM and family, Dr Louis Trichard and Christine, neighbours, Jan Dean Peter and Kaye Lowe, Daniel Huddleston, Kristy Hildebrand, Graham Mackie, John Carroll and Jason and Melanie Walker who made Anzac Day special. A special thanks to Betty Irons OAM and her brother, Bob Mansfield for our good times at the Saturday Maclean Markets. Not to forget my great brother-in-law, Tyrone McKee, who can be found cruising Australian waters in his yacht, Sahara.
A special thanks to John and June Riggall. A couple of years ago I approached John with the idea of having a national memorial and legacy for emergency service volunteers killed in the line of duty to be recognised with an inscribed memorial in Canberra. As John was a former federal member of parliament I knew he had the skills to get the project off the ground. With the assistance of local federal member of parliament, Kevin Hogan, this project appears to be going ahead. Just volunteer firefighters in NSW and Victoria alone can count over 160 killed or died since 1950. Add to this the other states and organisations who have lost members and the wall would reflect the ultimate sacrifice made by men and women to protect their communities.
To three veterans of World War II, my aunt, Joan Payne, and Maclean RSL members, Vera Montague and Mick O’Reilly, go my thanks for your courageous service to this nation.
To all my extended family, the Duffy boys, my sister, Lyn and Jock Barclay in Tassie, brother Tom and his wife, Colleen and my nieces, Shannon, Jessica, Charlotte and Sophia. To my family in Queensland, Luke, Virginia and Tim.
Not to forget my friends in the world of writing: Tony Park and his wife, Nicola, Dave Sabben MG and his wife, Diane, my old mate, Simon Higgins and Annie, Greg Barron and Karly Lane.
A special thanks to all my readers who buy the books for allowing me six months of volunteer bushfire fighting each fire season.
About Peter Watt
Peter Watt has spent time as a soldier, articled clerk, prawn trawler deckhand, builder’s labourer, pipe layer, real estate salesman, surveyor’s chainman, private investigator, police sergeant and advisor to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. He speaks, reads and writes Vietnamese and Pidgin. He now lives at Maclean, on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. He is a volunteer fire fighter with the Rural Fire Service, and also serves with the Volunteer Rescue Association and Queensland Ambulance Service.
Peter Watt can be contacted at www.peterwatt.com and on Facebook at ‘Fans of Peter Watt Books’.
Also by Peter Watt
The Duffy/Macintosh Series
Cry of the Curlew
Shadow of the Osprey
Flight of the Eagle
To Chase the Storm
To Touch the Clouds
To Ride the Wind
Beyond the Horizon
War Clouds Gather
And Fire Falls
The Papua Series
Papua
Eden
The Pacific
The Silent Frontier
The Stone Dragon
The Frozen Circle
THE DUFFY / MACINTOSH SERIES
Peter Watt
Cry of the Curlew
A stark and vivid novel of Australia’s brutal past.
An epic tale of two families, the Macintoshes and the Duffys, who are locked in a deadly battle from the moment squatter Donald Macintosh commits an act of barbarity on his Queensland property.
Their paths cross in love, death and revenge as both families fight to tame the wild frontier of Australia’s north country.
Cry of the Curlew is the first bestselling novel in the compelling Duffy and Macintosh series depicting our turbulent history as never before.
Peter Watt
Shadow of the Osprey
A riveting tale of love, death and revenge.
Soldier of fortune Michael Duffy returns to colonial Sydney on a covert mission and with old scores to settle, still enraged by a bitter feud between his family and the ruthless Macintoshes.
The Palmer River gold rush lures American prospector Luke Tracy back to Australia’s rugged north country in his elusive search for riches and the great passion of his life, Kate O’Keefe.
From the boardrooms and backstreets of Sydney to the hazardous waters of the Coral Sea, the sequel to Cry of Curlew confirms the exceptional talent of master storyteller Peter Watt.
Peter Watt
Flight of the Eagle
A deadly family curse holds two families in its powerful grip.
Captain Patrick Duffy’s passions are inflamed by the mysterious Irishwoman Catherine Fitzgerald, further pitting him against his father, Michael Duffy, and his adoring but scheming grandmother, Lady Enid Macintosh.
On the rugged Queensland frontier, Native Mounted Police trooper Peter Duffy is torn between his loyal bond with Gordon James, the love of his sister, Sarah, and the blood of his mother’s people, the Nerambura tribe.
Two men, the women who love them and a dreadful curse that still inextricably links the lives of the Macintoshes and the Duffys culminate in a stunning addition to the series featuring Cry of the Curlew and Shadow of the Osprey.
Peter Watt
To Chase the Storm
When Major Patrick Duffy’s beautiful wife Catherine leaves him for another, returning to her native Ireland, Patrick’s broken heart propels him out of the Sydney Macintosh home and into yet another bloody war. However the battlefields of Africa hold more than nightmarish terrors and unspeakable conditions for Patrick – they bring him in contact with one he thought long dead and lost to him.
Back in Australia, the mysterious Michael O’Flynn mentors Patrick’s youngest son, Alex, and at his grandmother’s request takes him on a journey to their Queensland property, Glen View. But will the terrible curse that has inextricably linked the Duffys and Macintoshes for generations ensure that no true happiness can ever come to them? So much seems to depend on Wallarie, the last warrior of the Nerambura tribe, whose mere name evokes a legend approaching myth.
Through the dawn of a new century in a now federated nation, To Chase the Storm charts an explosive tale of love and loss, from South Africa to Palestine, from Townsville to the green hills of Ireland, and to the more sinister politics that lurk behind them. By public demand, master storyteller Peter Watt returns to this much-loved series following on from the bestselling Cry of the Curlew, Shadow of the Osprey and Flight of the Eagle.
Peter Watt
To Touch the Clouds
They had all forgotten the curse…except one…until it touched them. I will tell you of those times when the whitefella touched the clouds and lightning came down on the earth for many years.
In 1914, the storm clouds of war are gathering. Matthew Duffy and his cousin Alexander Macintosh are sent by Colonel Patrick Duffy to conduct reconnaissance on German-controlled New Guinea. At the same time, Alexander’s sister, Fenella, is making a name for herself in the burgeoning Australian film industry.
But someone close to them has an agenda of his own – someone who would betray not only his country to satisfy his greed and lust for power. As the world teeters on the brink of conflict, one family is plunged into a nightmare of murder, drugs, treachery and treason.
Peter Watt
To Ride the Wind
It is 1916, and war rages across Europe and the Middle East. Patrick and Matthew Duffy are both fighting the enemy, Patrick in the fields of France and Matthew in the skies above Egypt.
But there is another, secret foe. George Macintosh is passing information to the Germans, seeking to consolidate his power within the family company.
And half a world away from the trenches, one of their own will meet a shocking death.
Meanwhile, a young man is haunted by dreams of a sacred cave, and seeks fiery stars that will help him take back his people’s land.
To Ride the Wind continues the story of the Duffys and Macintoshes, following Peter Watt’s much-loved characters as they fight to survive one of the most devastating conflicts in history – and each other.
Peter Watt
Beyond the Horizon
It is 1918, a year when war will end, but an even greater killer arises.
On the bloody fields of the Western Front and the battle-scarred desert plains of the Middle East, Tom and Matthew Duffy are battling the enemy in the final year of the Great War. Even as they are trapped on the front lines, they must also find the courage to fight for the women they love when all hope is lost.
Back in Australia, George Macintosh is outraged by the stipulations of his father’s will that provide for his despised nephew, and is determined to eliminate any threats to his power. And in a sacred cave in the far Outback, old Wallarie foresees a tide of unspeakable death sweeping through his homeland.
As all nations come to terms with the devastating consequences of the Great War, a new world will be born. But not everyone will live to see it.
Peter Watt
War Clouds Gather
Against the backdrop of impending war and the rise of the Nazi Party, the epic saga of the Macintosh and Duffy families continues.
It’s 1936. While Europe is starting to feel the shadow of the upcoming turmoil, George Macintosh is determined to keep control of his business empire. He takes extreme measures to prevent his nephew David from taking a seat on the Board. Meanwhile, George’s son Donald is packed off to the family station Glen View in Northern Queensland in an effort to curb his excesses.
In Iraq, Captain Matthew Duffy doesn’t escape the stain of growing fanaticism. Recruited by British Intelligence, he once more faces a German enemy, although this one has a more pleasing aspect. Matthew is confused by his attraction to Diane and finds himself having to make a hard decision. And just as he is coming to terms with his choice, he meets his estranged son, James Barrington Jnr.
In the middle of all this upheaval, the two families experience loss, love, greatness and tragedy, and find themselves brought closer together and pulled further apart. Romance blooms in the unlikeliest of hearts under the gathering clouds of war.
Peter Watt
And Fire Falls
It is 1942 and the war in the Pacific is on Australia’s doorstep, changing the lives of the Duffy and Macintosh families as never before.
In Sydney, siblings Donald and Sarah Macintosh battle for their father’s approval, and control of his empire, while their cousin David fights the enemy across the continents.
US Marine Pilot James Duffy defies his grandfather’s wishes, and, a number of times, death, protecting Australian skies from the Japanese. Trapped in the jungles of Malaya, Diane Duffy is caught between saving the lives of hundreds of orphaned children, or that of her son.
While Tom Duffy finds himself enlisting in yet another world war, his daughter Jessica narrowly escapes slaughter at a mission station, causing her to revoke her vows and follow in her father’s footsteps.
THE PAPUA TRILOGY
Peter Watt
Papua
Two men, sworn enemies, come face to face on the battlefields of France.
When Jack Kelly, a captain in the Australian army, shows compassion towards his prisoner Paul Mann, a brave and high-ranking German officer, an unexpected bond is formed. But neither could imagine how their pasts and futures would become inextricably linked by one place: Papua.
The Great War is finally over and both soldiers return to their once familiar lives, only to find that in their absences events have changed their respective worlds forever. In Sydney Jack is suddenly alone with a son he does not know and a future filled with uncertainty, while the photograph of a beautiful German woman he has never met fills his thoughts. Meanwhile the Germany that Paul had fought for is vanishing under the influence of an ambitious young man named Adolph Hitler, and he fears for the future of his family. A new beginning beckons them both in a beautiful but dangerous land where rivers of gold are as legendary as the fearless, cannibalistic tribes, and where fortunes can be made and lost as quickly as a life. Papua.
A compelling novel where love, loyalty and the strength of family must stand against greed and treachery in a tropical paradise.
Peter Watt
Eden
A new war, a new generation and an old enemy meet in this thrilling and poignant novel of love, loss and hope written by the bestselling author of Papua.
Jack Kelly and Paul Mann are like brothers; the two old wartime enemies have been through blood and fire and must now face their greatest challenge. When the Japanese threaten to invade the Pacific they know that they must do everything in their power to protect their country, and their loved ones, from an ambitious and merciless enemy.
Their sons, Lukas Kelly and Karl Mann, have inherited their fathers’ brave and passionate natures, and are determined to do their part to support the Australian cause–romantic entanglements for the two young men raise the stakes even further.
Four incredible men, with ties closer than blood, fight to hold on to love, friendship and a world that is gradually disappearing.
Peter Watt
The Pacific
Two families thrown together by War.
When war correspondent Ilsa Stahl’s plane goes down in a terrible storm over Papuan waters and she is taken prisoner by the Japanese, Ilsa prepares for the worst.
Her father, Jack Kelly, will stop at nothing to save her - even if it means risking the life of his only son, Lukas. No one knows Papua the way they do, and they are Ilsa’s only hope.
Meanwhile, Major Kahl Mann is sent on a secret mission to Indochina that will see him embroiled in Ilsa’s rescue in a way he could never have imagined.
This sweeping saga continues the story of the Kellys and Manns, following Peter Watt’s much-loved characters as they fight to survive the war on Australia’s doorstep.
OTHER NOVELS
Peter Watt
The Silent Frontier
Lachlan, John and Phoebe MacDonald, three young children tragically separated after the massacre at the Ballarat goldfields, try to make their way in a world filled with poverty and war.
John is determined to find his lost siblings and meanwhile works hard to make a name for himself. A business partnership leads to riches and rewards that he never dreamed of.
Lachlan has always known what it is to struggle for survival. But even a life of bare knuckle fighting and destitution cannot prepare him for the war he finds himself in against the Maori of New Zealand, nor the feelings he has for his Commanding Officer’s sister.
Phoebe barely remembers what it is to have a family and yearns for a love that will make her feel complete, and a home to call her own.
Three tales of courage, hope and forbidden love set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Maori wars and an emerging Australian nation.
Peter Watt
The Stone Dragon
Lachlan, John and Phoebe MacDonald, three young children tragically separated after the massacre at the Ballarat goldfields, try to make their way in a world filled with poverty and war.
John is determined to find his lost siblings and meanwhile works hard to make a name for himself. A business partnership leads to riches and rewards that he never dreamed of.
Lachlan has always known what it is to struggle for survival. But even a life of bare knuckle fighting and destitution cannot prepare him for the war he finds himself in against the Maori of New Zealand, nor the feelings he has for his Commanding Officer’s sister.
Phoebe barely remember
s what it is to have a family and yearns for a love that will make her feel complete, and a home to call her own.
Three tales of courage, hope and forbidden love set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Maori wars and an emerging Australian nation.
Peter Watt
The Frozen Circle
In 1918, after the Great War, two Australian soldiers join the British army to help fight the Bolshevik forces in northern Russia. Almost a century later, two bodies are unearthed in the small Australian country town of Valley View.
Following the Armistice, Sergeant Joshua Larkin is sent on a special mission deep into enemy territory in Russia. But when he is ordered to do the unthinkable, he must flee across Europe in order to protect a young woman, Maria, whose family has been executed. With Maria’s life under threat from all sides due to her imperial connections, nowhere is safe.
Decades later, the discovery of the two skeletons in Valley View poses problems for local policeman Morgan McLean. Who are the victims and why were they killed? Could the rumours of an heir to the Russian throne be true? And what explosive secret is Britain’s MI6 desperate to keep hidden by any means necessary?
Past and present collide in The Frozen Circle, and the fate of two people unleashes a volatile series of events that could reshape the world.
“Australia’s answer to Wilbur Smith” (Herald Sun)
Excerpts from emails sent to Peter Watt
‘Have just finished reading And Fire Falls. Mate! How good was that. Bloody marvellous. The story just keeps on getting better.’
‘I felt there were three themes that you could only appreciate if you had read all the books. The first was the continued presence of Wallarie looking after the good and keeping an eye on the bad. The second was Jack Kelly rescuing Jessica. Very clever storytelling. After the Papua Trilogy we probably thought we had lost him forever. And last, the cottage at Manly and the drawings of Fiona from the early books. Who would have thought that after about 100 years, Sarah and David would have followed in the footsteps of Fiona and Michael.’