Bridget's Locket and Other Mysteries

Résumé : "The sun had set away behind Willamstown, but the red glow was still there, and lay like a shadow of blood on the placid waters of our bay." Murder, love, courage. This triptych of nineteenth-century thrillers by Mary Helena Fortune, writing as Waif Wander, encompasses colonial Australia's sweeping landscapes, fearsome bushrangers, and the voices of women long silenced. Fortune, who has been all-but forgotten by Australian literary history, subverts the limits imposed on nineteenth-century female authors by writing about women who struggle against incredible odds . . . and sometimes win. Serialised in Australian periodicals between 1866 and 1887, these three mysteries were wildly popular, but lost to time. This beautiful, collectable edition celebrates a pioneering voice who knew how to write page-turning tales.