High on a hill above the small fictional Victorian town of Carrabeen, 300 wind turbines constantly spin.
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Except one is now deadly still — a body hanging from one of its huge white blades.
Detective Sergeants Belinda Burney and Will Lovell are shocked to discover the dead man is Geordie Pritchard, a rich local philanthropist and owner of the wind energy farm.
Suicide at first seems the likely explanation, until Geordie’s widow Lucinda insists her husband was murdered — and she has the death threats to prove it.
Certainly the wind farm has ripped the rural town in two. Some welcome the jobs and prosperity it brings, others are enraged by the loss of farming land.
So in the eyes of the locals, Geordie was both saint and sinner.
But who in the small community hated him enough to want him dead?
An Ill Wind is the exciting new rural crime novel from Margaret Hickey, an award-winning author and playwright who lives in the High Country of north-east Victoria.
The natural Australian landscape is the centrepiece of all Margaret’s writing, having always been struck by its isolation, danger and beauty.
An Ill Wind by Margaret Hickey is published by Penguin, RRP $34.99.
Sins of the Fathers by John Byrnes
In the early years of the 20th century, Billy and Tommy Smith are growing up on the mean streets of Sydney’s Millers Point.
It’s a hungry, hard-scrabble life, made even worse when their violent father returns home from a long stint in prison.
The girl next door, Angeline Dubois, is an ambitious young woman running a small boarding house down at The Point.
Circumstances beyond her control threaten to derail her big dreams for the future.
In the wealthy eastern suburbs, Charles Davies is living an entirely different life, the beneficiary of his father’s business acumen and insatiable, unyielding greed.
Charles wants for nothing — except perhaps his father’s approval.
When an incident on The Point leads to the deaths of both Charles’ and the Smith boys’ fathers, a hatred is born that will follow the three men through their lives.
In an epic saga taking them from Sydney to Gallipoli and the killing fields of France in World War I, to the melting pot of Darwin and the opal fields at Lightning Ridge, the men’s paths all lead to one final destination — revenge.
But in the end, what price must be paid for the sins of the fathers?
Author John Byrnes has worked bars and doors in pubs and clubs all over Australia, on fishing trawlers out of Darwin, and served in the Australian Army.
He started writing in 2015 and has a fascination with the darker aspects of the human condition — he cheers for the outsider, the slacker, the contrarian, the non-conformist.
Born in Sydney, John now lives on the NSW mid-north coast.
Sins of the Fathers by John Byrnes is published by Macmillan Australia, RRP $34.99.
GIVEAWAY
We have two copies of each of these books to give away.For a chance to win a set of both books, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question: Where was the working dog training day held on Sunday? (Hint: see page 5.) Entries close on Friday, August 1, via post to: Country Life ‘Aussie’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632; or email to: competition@countrynews.com.au — please include the word ‘Aussie’ in the subject line.
WINNER
The winners of our June Monopoly giveaway are: Jennifer Holm of Tatura and Karen Dewar of Shepparton. Congratulations! Collect your prize from the Shepparton News office at 7940 Goulburn Valley Hwy, Shepparton.
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