Cirrus@Austlit

According to Luke is a thrilling romantic novel of secrecy, symbols, faith, and forbidden love. It takes the reader on a quest for an ancient truth so powerful it disturbs the Catholic Church: a truth so explosive it attracts violent separatists and demands a ransom of millions. Follow a chase that charges from Venice to Malta, and then to Ravenna: a chase that escalates to disaster in Damascus, until a solution is found in the Victorian countryside in Australia (author's website).

According to Luke features the secondary character Prof Bryn Awbrey, an expert in semiotics. He later appears in Dingli's 2013 novel The Hidden Auditorium ('Rosanne Dingli, The Hidden Auditorium And Why Writing Never Ends,' interview with Nick Wales 2013).

When Richard Wagner died in Venice in 1883, it was the end of a creative and tumultuous life. His family grieved, and the world lost a brilliant composer. Nearly 130 years later antiques dealer Nic Manton is led to a valuable pendant he feels provides a solution to his precarious finances. With no idea of its meaning or provenance, he is mystified why the pendant creates such fear and confusion, and aggravates rather than solves his problems. Its apparent owner is beautiful but erratic. As she leads him from Rome to Venice and then to Malta, Austria and Germany, Manton becomes increasingly aware that there is a perplexing secret about Richard Wagner’s life and works, and that this secret is also dangerous. A melancholic widow and a brilliant but vague professor are willing to help. But Manton doubts whether they can.

The Hidden Auditorium is a companion novel to According to Luke (2011). Both works feature the secondary character Prof Bryn Awbrey, an expert in semiotics ('Rosanne Dingli, The Hidden Auditorium And Why Writing Never Ends,' interview with Nick Wales 2013).

[Source: Yellow Teapot Books]

'"A clever and complex cross-genre novel that doesn't quite fit your typical time-travel or dual era genre."  -- Money in the Mattress

'Loretta Groombridge thinks she's made a friend when Tikki Foy arrives in Venice as her employer's house guest. Professor Bryn Awbrey is renowned for his brilliance in solving literary puzzles ... and for his cluttered home, which Loretta is paid to organize. 

'But the newly-arrived guest distracts the professor and pulls him away. Something she's found hints of lost papers by Franz Kafka, famous Czech short-story writer of the 1920s. The possibility is tantalizing, but Loretta suspects a more sinister side to Tikki's story. Her weird behaviour and the danger and complication she attracts seem exaggerated and unwarranted. Who is pushing her to this; her library colleague, or a weird character who doggedly follows them? A chase takes place, tugging the women to Perth on a dizzy pursuit.

'Loneliness, suspicion, and fear of losing her place in Bryn Awbrey's life whirl Loretta into a spiral of distrust and disappointment. Tikki pitches against her. Venice becomes a haunting, suspicious place.

'What is found in the end confounds even the professor's logic.
 

'The Frozen Sea is a literary adventure, a chase for treasure and truth, and an exploration of what it means to be lonely. Historical vignettes bring Kafka and his 1920s contemporaries to life, and weave together history and present-day dilemmas.

'You'll think of it as one of those novels you couldn't put down.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'A retired couple stumbles on an old mystery ...

'... they don't suspect the power of history, and the modern danger it creates.

'Water, ships, boats, and boatmen are part and parcel of Venice. When Denise and Roger arrive by yacht, they're bewildered by the mystery of a missing map; a convent's tourist attraction. 

'An ancient quest leads the couple into modern dangers; both of them alarmed and panicking. But even the help of brilliant Professor Bryn Awbrey can't stop the ruthlessness of crooks, who care only for money. 

'Everyone has their own particular brand of fear.  

'It interrupts, slows, and stops us all. But it must finally be faced.

'Through history, the missing map fills whoever finds it with dread; from a luckless sea captain to an impatient nun.

'Can fear keep the map hidden forever? 

'The Cartographer of Venice is a story that straddles two timelines. The history, food, locations, and mystery of Venice are as vivid today as they were in the 1500s. Become enchanted by the canal city's magic, and let yourself feel that subtle tingle of fear. You will never look at a map in the same way again.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)