Cirrus@Austlit

'1814 is a tale of two hemispheres and a man and a woman who initially shared little but the English language. Of a man of peace – a doctor –  ensnared in the violence of the American revolution, forced to flee the former American colonies of King George III. Of a very young woman fighting for survival amid the injustice, poverty and corruption of early nineteenth Century Britain. A woman who is unjustly sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land. British ‘justice’ was harsh beyond belief at this time and at its worst in its treatment of female convicts.

'At this point in history Britain and particularly the Royal Navy were all powerful and the American doctor sought anonymity under a new identity. He ‘signed on’ with a group of sealers who had their own notorious empire in the remote islands of Bass Strait. These sealers, to this day, are recognised as the most evil of men. 

'It is in this lawless world that two good people meet. This is a world the writer/ historian and master story teller Craig Godfrey understands very well. Though fictional his characters fiercely illuminate the times, the remoteness and the people that populate these colonies.

'This is a sweeping human panorama of the lives of convicts, free settlers, Indigenous Australians and of good and evil. The action is constant, often violent and yet love triumphs in the end. ' (Publication summary)

'Accidental Tasmanian adventurers Jameson Rowley and Elspeth Poole are once again embroiled in an action packed escapade. Tasmanian Museum curator Elspeth is lured to Jamaica by the charismatic Jamaican minister for culture who had met the beautiful Elspeth when he was a student in Tasmania.' (Synopsis)

'Hunter, Hunted is the story of the ongoing fortunes and misfortunes of Hobart Town sleuth Caspian Hunter in the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. The year is 1885.'

Source: Publication blurb.

'Caspian is a 19th century detective. His was a brand new profession – in the 1850s Sir Robert Peel’s Police had been in existence for a mere 20 years. Caspian is a modern man who well understands the scientific advances of the times. He also understands human nature, including his own. Hobart Town is still populated by rogues, thieves, whalers, ex-convicts and scoundrels of every kind and colour. There is an inn on every corner, and the ladies of the night take pride in their professional skills. They are especially skilled at parting the lads with their money. Caspian is slightly dissolute, a little overweight, and a little too susceptible to the delights of the flesh, and is not adverse to sampling the daunting choices of grog and colonial food available. A mystery ship, found abandoned but still sound, marks his arrival in the colony, indeed it becomes his first case. Then the bodies of the murder victims begin to accumulate. Eventually the governor and a senior aristocratic citizen of the colony are implicated.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

The detective was still a new profession in the 1880s when English policeman Caspian arrives in Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land (later Tasmania). Indeed, Sir Robert Peel’s Police had been in existence for a mere 20 years. The Shadow Hunter series follows the exploits of Caspian, a modern man who well understands the scientific advances of the times. He also understands human nature, including his own. he soon discovers that Hobart Town is populated by rogues, thieves, whalers, ex-convicts and scoundrels of every kind and colour.

'A young lieutenant Abbott Bragg, dismissed from the King's army for an indiscretion with his commanding officer's wife, commits a minor crime leading to his transportation to Van Dieman's Land. Here he meets fellow prisoner, 'French Frank', also enjoying the hospitality of the King, and Nathina, a young Aboriginal woman. Following a creative and daring escape Abbott and French Frank become bushrangers. Posing as innkeepers they indulge in honest highway robbery, all the while cheating the hangman. Meanwhile, Nathina is taken to London as a 'live exhibit' in the name of nineteenth-century science, which included dark tales of preserved Aboriginal heads sent to the British Museum.

'This is a rollicking tale of violence, adventure and love in its many forms. It is populated with a rich cast of characters as might be expected in a remote outpost where almost everyone is escaping from something.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'September 3rd, 1939: WAR DECLARED Australia supported Britain in its war against Germany. As a consequence German citizens living in Australia were arrested and imprisoned in internment camps around Australia. Camp L42 at Dark Valley was not on any map. The primeval southwest Tasmanian wilderness was thought to be remote enough to sweep the problem under the mat. The prisoners were not deemed dangerous and security was minimal; they were, after all, out of harm’s way. Camp L42 was run by a few dozen guards and soldiers, men too old to be sent to the war in Europe or the Pacific. They were governed by a commandant, Alexander Pearce and his Company Sergeant, Major Remus Riley. Unknown to the authorities these two men had unhealthy pasts. Prisoners began escaping. It was all too easy. But the escapees were still trapped in Dark Valley between a deep gorge and mountains. As the warmer weather approached the ‘visitors’ arrived in small groups. Wealthy visitors. Wealthy hunters. And then the real horror began…' (Publication summary)

'Twenty One Steps Down begins with a German U-Boat's attack on a fishing boat off Tasmania's West Coast, and a chance find of a message from a young German boy in a weathered bottle on a Bruny Island beach .. a century after it was dropped onto the sea.' (Synopsis)

'Accidental adventurers and siblings Jack and Katie Emden, with their hairy hound Rummin, manage to attract consistent trouble in action adventures set in historic Tasmania.' (Publisher's summary)

'An adult-only adventure peppered with true romance and men with a lust for more than gold.' (Publisher's extract)

In Hobart in 1837, convict Kavendish escapes and, after various acts of murder and cannibalism, vanishes into thin air.

In Hobart in 1997, Corbet agrees to aid a scientist friend in his experiments with past-life regression, not realising that the dominant figure in his family tree is Kavendish ...

'Cassie thought that the deserted beach town would be the perfect escape from the past, from her unfaithful lover and painful memories. Peace is short-lived. In this serene town hides a sickening evil. Her only escape may be in the obscurity of a mental asylum. However, it is here the evil will find her also'.

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 27/6/2012)

According to Robert Hood, 'Based on the concept of a pair of glasses which shows the wearer things seen by their previous owner, who is dead. The main thing the glasses reveal is that his apparent suicide was in fact murder'.

Source: Robert Hood, 'Killer Koalas: Australian (and New Zealand) Horror Films'. Tabula Rasa (http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/OzHorrorFilms2.html). (Sighted: 29/6/2012).