Tag Archives: australian authors

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Dive into the Enigmatic World of Sugar Creek by S.C. Karakaltsas

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A missing man, a stolen baby, and a plot of land where nothing grows. Are they connected? One person knows.

1948: In the seemingly idyllic town of Sugar Creek, Ellen is eager to share the joyous news of her pregnancy with her fiancé Billy. Billy takes on extra work at a local military base, Ellen’s fears grow when he mysteriously vanishes. Her desperate search for answers turns the town against her, placing her life in jeopardy.

2000: Dana, a GP whose career has hit a dead end due to a mistake, finds a lifeline in an unexpected offer from the desperate mayor of Sugar Creek. Upon her arrival, she encounters unexplained health issues among the locals. Her investigation reveals a decades-long conspiracy leading to an environmental disaster, pulling her deeper into the town’s dark history.

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💔 Profound Emotional Journey: Follow the compelling stories of two strong women across different eras.

🌏 Rich, Atmospheric Setting: Be transported to the hauntingly beautiful landscapes of Sugar Creek.

🔥 Unpredictable Twists and Turns: Every chapter hooks you deeper into the gripping plot.

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Critical Acclaim for Sugar Creek:

“The story will grab your attention within the first pages and won’t let go until you turn the last page. It will have your heart beating fast with suspense and you may even find yourself wiping tears from your eyes.” Teresa Collins

“Sugar Creek by S.C. Karakaltsas was one of the best books I’ve read in 2023! When you pick up this book to read, which I highly recommend you all do, set aside a few hours or an afternoon to do so because you will not be able to put it down.” Kymm

“Excellent historical fiction that brings the past and future together, highlighting the wrongs of the past.” Katrina

Book Review: Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

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This story was first written as a play which I unfortunately missed last year when it was on in Melbourne. When the novel from which the play was based was selected by our book group I was looking forward to reading it.

The novel is about Tessa, a young brilliant barrister in London. She’s worked hard to get there having come from a working-class background where her mother is a cleaner and her brother is trying to stay out of jail having been there for a short time when he was younger. She has clawed her way through the class system to be the best at her job as a criminal defense barrister. But she also knows she works in the hallowed turf of London establishment where her colleagues come from privileged and entitled backgrounds.

She loves the law and believes in it.  Then one night she finds herself in a position, like one in three women, where she is raped by a colleague.  She won’t be silent and takes it to court with all the consequences that you can imagine.

This is an emotional and raw story and the author doesn’t hold anything back as she explores the price that victims play not just from the crime but from the process of seeking justice.

The first half of the novel gives insights into Tessa’s life from her family background of domestic violence and poverty, to her climb to  Cambridge where she’s told one in three will never make it in Law. Through dogged determination she is the one who does make it but the feeling of being inadequate and of being of the wrong class is emphasised over and over again. For me that was a little too repetitious. The second half of the novel was all about the court case which was cleverly interspersed with the events immediately after the crime occurred.

Tessa does have full faith in the law and I did wonder as a criminal barrister why she was naïve enough to believe that the law could protect her in this case when the law itself works against sexual abuse cases. But like others who have gone before her, to make a stand and have a voice is what ends up being as important.

It’s a powerful story and one that everyone should read. Although it was set in London, the issues around misogynistic law applies equally in Australia and reminds me of Louise Milligan’s book called Witness where she deals with the factual inadequacies in our own legal system when it comes to sexual abuse crimes.

Highly recommend this one.

Book Review: Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

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You can never go wrong with a Sally Hepworth book and I’ve read most of them now. Darling Girls is no exception.

Three foster sisters,  Norah, Jessica and Alicia have come from diverse traumatic backgrounds to meet in a new foster home run by Miss Fairchild who shows the outside world a different persona to the one behind closed doors.

Years later, Miss Fairchild’s old house is demolished to make way for a new building and human bones are discovered under the house. Police call on the three women to help them with their investigation and the three who have remained close into their adulthood, reluctantly go back to Port Agatha where the house was and back in time to their ugly childhood.

Each of the sisters, has their own difficulties in adulthood and the narrative takes us into each of their points of view with a shock twist at the end.

Hepworth tackles the world of foster carers, vulnerability of children as well as mental health from trauma. At times I found it quite confronting but Hepworth gently leads the reader out of the tension, providing relief in all the right places. It’s also a novel about love and friendship.

The chapters are short and it’s an enjoyable and easy read.

Book Review: That Bligh Girl by Sue Williams

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 I really enjoyed, Elizabeth and Elizabeth by Sue Williams and was eager to read another of her books. which is steeped in historical detail putting the reader in the centre of early colonial life.

That Bligh Girl, steeped in historical detail putting the reader in the centre of early colonial life, is a fantastic novel about the daughter of Governor Bligh, Mary Putland. She’s a feisty woman forced to accompany her domineering father on a horrific voyage to Australia where she comes face to face with numerous challenges of a new colony.

I’d heard of Bligh from mutiny on the bounty fame, but little else. He was an autocratic, pig-headed, and dogmatic man and despite what she thinks Mary had some of those very qualities. She needed them to stand up not only to her father but to the soldiers of the rum rebellion led by none other than John McArthur, whose wife Elizabeth was featured in Williams earlier novel, Elizabeth and Elizabeth (see my review https://sckarakaltsas.com/2021/07/16/book-review-elizabeth-elizabeth-by-sue-williams/.)

Williams is deft at portraying the strength of women, not only of Mary but her convict maid, Meg Hill.  The historical narrative is rich in detail and whilst life was hard for everyone, it was more so for women.  This is not just about the privileged however, as Williams delves into the difficulties of life for convict women.

We learn more though about Mary’s life, her marriage to her great love, John Putland, his heart-wrenching death and her second marriage.

If you don’t know a lot about early colonial life in Sydney then this might just be the book for you. I’d highly recommend it.  

On Sale Today Only .99c

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A missing man, a stolen baby and a plot of land where nothing grows. Are they connected? One person knows.

1948: Sugar Creek seemed such a welcoming town for Ellen, a young woman keen to share the news of her pregnancy with her fiancé Billy. When Billy signs up for extra work testing topical creams at the local military base, to earn money for their wedding, Ellen is nervous. Now it seems her fears were founded. Billy has disappeared. Devastated, Ellen begins to ask questions, turning the locals against her and putting her life at risk as she desperately searches for him.

2000: Instead of beginning her career with a dream job as a GP in a suburban practice, Dana has found herself jobless and facing the hospital board for a mistake she made with a patient. Herb Hipworth, mayor of Sugar Creek, is desperate for a town doctor and makes Dana an offer she can’t refuse. But when Dana arrives in the remote tropical town, she discovers the locals are plagued with unexplained health issues. Now, as she digs for the cause, she stumbles upon a decades-long conspiracy leading to an environmental disaster.

Book Review: Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

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I’d heard a lot about this one, saw it in a book store and grabbed it. Had I read the blurb on the back I might not have read it but I gave it a go.

The first page captured my interest when Hera reveals that in her twenties, she fell in love with a married man who wouldn’t leave his wife. The first fifty or so pages is a diatribe of her background story, her degrees, her schooling, her friends and the fact that at twenty four, she had no career aspirations. Living with her father, she feels compelled to find a job, landing one as a comment moderator at a major news outlet where she meets ‘the much older married man.’

To be honest that first part of the book was a little boring and I’d have liked a more condensed backstory. I know it was establishing her character but we see it anyway. I became more invested in this story at the point when she gets her first job which I think might have been a better starting point.

Hera’s observation of office politics and people dynamics was amusing as it was cutting and most people who have ever worked in an office whether it be the eighties or now will identify with the mind-numbing feeling of a dead-end job. The Green Dot is contemporary and immerses us into the everyday world of social media and internal messaging interspersed with the news of the day.

Under the bravado of Hera’s character lays a very insecure and vulnerable person who is not without self-awareness despite her often bizarre behaviour. There is mention of her mother and their estrangement but we never truly know what happened with the relationship although there is just enough information for the reader to make their own conclusions.

The Green Dot is quite well-written although some of the analogies were a little cringeworthy and might have been better left out. Talking about office workers she says, “They are just gurning to get inside and go sit at a computer. When you get an abortion you can then leave the building, and you might be really devastated or you might feel really free – either way it’s a decision you’ve made about your body and your life and you’ve had that choice.”

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this book hoping for Hera to find happiness and for her to make better choices. Does she? You’ll have to check it out for yourself.

Book Review: Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

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This is a tough but essential read and very deserving of the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2023.

Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is located in the western suburbs of Sydney and its residents and indeed owners have interesting histories peppered with secrets and trauma. The place is a home of safety and kindness and consideration, until it’s targeting by small mindedness.

The owner, Maya is herself a resident in her eighties having given up the running of it to her daughter Anja whose best friend Nikki is the home’s doctor. The author takes us into their lives, their past as well as their present. Maya’s beloved husband has disappeared and the trauma of her loss is never far away. Maya also harbours secrets to the outside world portraying herself as a white person when she is a Sri Lankan Tamil married to a Sri Lankan Muslim.

Chandran does a brilliant job to not just highlight and educate the reader about what it’s like to be a Tamil in Sri Lanka as well as Australia, but also shows us the brutality of war and the  stupidity of thinking behind racism together with the denial and destruction of culture by a majority over a minority. This is not only a repetitive historical trope but a real one that we witness today, right now. The Tamil language was forbidden back in the fifties, their land and culture denied which resulted in the recent Civil War.

Chandran also dissects white privilege thinking in Australia via her character Gareth who is married to Nikki. She explores media, mainstream and social where a story can go off course creating falsity and driving lies which leads to tragic consequences. Gareth is the instrumental vehicle and after lighting the ‘fire’ of racism, we don’t see him again. On reflection I preferred it that way.

It might be fiction but the themes are brutal, painful and uncomfortable. Chandran never lets you off the hook as the reader is forced to confront and consider and think.

The characters are well drawn and although there is a lot of them, you get to know them quickly.

A powerful book and a must read.