The Woman in the Green Dress was initially published in Australia and has now been republished by Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. I can’t say there was anything overtly Christian about the novel—there was definitely no clear faith element. There was no bad language, sex, or violence, and there was a disgust of racism that was unfashionable for the time.
It’s a dual timeline story, and one that’s relatively unusual because both timelines are historic.
The story starts in London on 11 November 1918—Armistice Day. Fleur Richards is looking forward to seeing her husband and emigrating with him to his homeland of Australia. Instead, she finds he died of the Spanish Flu a week before the war ended, and she must travel to Australia alone to collect his inheritance.
The past story starts in 1853, and centres on Captain Stefan von Richter, who has travelled to Australia as a favour for an old mentor, and who is searching for opals. He travels from Sydney to the Hawesbury region, where he meets Della Atherton, a taxidermist who also owns a curio shop in Sydney … the same shop Fleur inherits in 1918.
There is always a link between past and present in a good dual timeline story (well, in this case it’s a link between past and further past). That’s certainly present in the locations, although the final connections don’t become apparent until the very end. There is also a mystery element that builds up gradually and delivers a solid finish.
All in all, The Woman in the Green Dress is an excellent novel with lots of linked threads that tie up into a satisfying whole. Recommended for fans of dual timeline stories and Australian colonial fiction.
Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Tea Cooper
Tea is an award winning Australian author of historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling. She is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Horse Thief, The Cedar Cutter, The Currency Lass, The Naturalist’s Daughter, The Woman in the Green Dress and The Girl in the Painting.
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The Woman in the Green Dress
1853 Mogo Creek, NSW
Della Atterton, bereft at the loss of her parents, is holed up in the place she loves best: the beautiful Hawkesbury in New South Wales. Happiest following the trade her father taught her, taxidermy, Della has no wish to return to Sydney. But the unexpected arrival of Captain Stefan von Richter on a quest to retrieve what could be Australia’s first opal, precipitates Della’s return to Sydney and her Curio Shop of Wonders, where she discovers her enigmatic aunt, Cordelia, is selling more than curiosities to collectors. Strange things are afoot and Della, a fly in a spider’s web, is caught up in events with unimaginable consequences…
1919 Sydney, NSW
When London teashop waitress Fleur Richards inherits land and wealth in Australia from her husband, Hugh, killed in the war, she wants nothing to do with it. After all, accepting it will mean Hugh really is dead. But Hugh’s lawyer is insistent, and so she finds herself ensconced in the Berkeley Hotel on Bent St, Sydney, the reluctant owner of a Hawkesbury property and an old curio shop, now desolate and boarded up.
As the real story of her inheritance unravels, Fleur finds herself in the company of a damaged returned soldier Kip, holding a thread that takes her deep into the past, a thread that could unravel a mystery surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress; a green that is the colour of envy, the colour buried deep within an opal, the colour of poison…
Find The Woman in the Green Dress online at:
Amazon | ChristianBook | Koorong
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