Cirrus@Austlit

'High in the stand at the MCG, the Holloway family settle in to watch their beloved Carlton play the mighty Collingwood Magpies. A beautiful winter's day, their son Alfie playing happily at their feet, and always the promise of victory; for Harry and Effie, life seems very agreeable.

'But death abruptly intrude, Inspector Holloway is required to investigate, and a chain of events is set off that will send shock waves through Melbourne's football community. A famous club is faced with a calamitous scandal as the inquiry leads Harry into the seedy world of Melbourne's illegal gambling culture.

'Harry's detective powers are severely tested as he confronts a desperate and formidable adversary. And as always, Effie is on hand to support her husband, with forthright and sometimes unsolicited advice.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Effie Davis is a modern young woman, educated and independent. And for a free-spirited woman in Melbourne in 1896 there is much to fight for ….. causes like universal suffrage and equal pay for women. 

'But Effie’s principles and beliefs become far more than academic when a chance meeting with baby Alfie in her St Kilda boarding house triggers a disturbing chain of events, one that exposes her to the seedier side of marvellous Melbourne.

'And so she steels herself to fight for another just cause: the rights of young mothers, separated from their babies through economic hardship and an uncaring State.

'A lost baby, a desperate single mother, and legal and welfare systems that seem totally unable to deal with a tragic mistake. But is it just hopeless bureaucracy to blame, or something far more sinister at work here?' (Publication summary)

'Boss chronicles the life and times of Mary Emily Susannah (Minnie) Hunter, and her experiences on the frontiers of nineteenth century Australia. Born into a family of famous horsemen and pioneers, Minnie inherits her family's love of horses as well as an affinity with the wild landscape at the edge of settled Australia.

'As a child she meets John Brewer, a self-made pastoralist and outstanding young horseman. She quickly comes to idolise the man she calls 'Boss', and the friendship she strikes up marks the beginning of a devotion that lasts her whole life.

'The book also charts the terrible fate that befell the Boandik and Wiradjuri tribes, who Minnie lived with and befriended over her life. In the space of a generation, disease and white apathy and neglect wiped out these people and their traditional way of life.

'Boss is based on the published diaries of Minnie Hunter, creatively interpreted to highlight the remarkable lives of Minnie, her family, and the people she encountered over her life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.