image of person or book cover 5902541680899727518.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon The Secret Heiress single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 The Secret Heiress
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Victoria, Australia, 1886… and 1903. Dark shadows fall across two golden summers, seventeen years apart.

'When beautiful Matilda Gregory, mistress of Summersby House, dies in mysterious circumstances her will brings to light an extraordinary deception – and a terrible wrong from the past. Summersby has a secret heiress, whose name is also Matilda Gregory, a strange, ethereal girl with an irrevocably broken memory.

'Grieving Samuel Hackett seems somehow linked to his fiancée’s death but a pact made with Barker, Summersby’s scheming butler, proves effective in silencing tongues. The two men return the second Matilda to her inheritance – and set off a series of puzzling events.

'Two loyal servant girls, Aggie and Ida, gradually awaken to the sinister forces playing in Summersby’s halls. Determined to aid the vulnerable heiress, the maids uncover strange vials, ghostly dogs, and letters from beyond the grave. These eerie messages hint of secrets from Summersby’s past – and incidents destined for the future.

'Biddy MacBryde, a runaway kitchen maid not yet born in 1886, is separated from these events by a distance of half a generation. Yet Biddy’s own path leads her towards Summersby, where in unwitting parallel with Aggie and Ida, she too uncovers a shocking truth about its heiress – and an even more startling legacy. ' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication: For my grandmothers, Ethel and Bea

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Cammeray, Cremorne - Mosman - Northbridge area, Sydney Northeastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Simon and Schuster Australia , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 5902541680899727518.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 425p.
      Note/s:
      • Published April 2015
      ISBN: 9781922052155

Works about this Work

Aussie Gothic Has Twin Attack Amanda Ellis , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 14 April 2016; (p. 15)

— Review of The Secret Heiress Luke Devenish , 2015 single work novel
Aussie Gothic Has Twin Attack Amanda Ellis , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 14 April 2016; (p. 15)

— Review of The Secret Heiress Luke Devenish , 2015 single work novel
Last amended 16 Sep 2021 09:51:33
Settings:
  • 1886
  • 1903
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X