Perth, 1943. A time for taking chances. Eleanor 'Nell' Fitzgerald is smart - inside and out. For now, she writes helpful fashion advice for a local rag, but is bursting with ambition and plans to marry her lawyer beau as soon as he returns from wartime service. When she meets the handsome, famous and oh-so-charming Johnny Horvath of the American Press Corps, she finds herself dragged into a murder mystery. Convicted of the murder of her artist lover, Lena Mitrovic is languishing in Fremantle Gaol. Johnny is sure of Lena's innocence and ropes in Nell to help him find the truth. During their investigation, they uncover some seedy secrets of wartime the other side of the "American Occupation". Girls and young women have been throwing caution to the wind, entering into romances and liaisons with the visiting servicemen. And Nell soon discovers that not everybody has good intentions...
Author
I was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and am the author of five popular novels set in the Second World War. The latest is Ambulance Girls Under Fire, which is the second of a trilogy set in the London Blitz. And my non-fiction "Nursing in Australia: The Illustrated History" will be published by the National Library of Australia in November 2018. I am a former lawyer with a passion for history (and three history degrees to prove it!!). And although I love the clear skies, beautiful beaches and easy-going atmosphere of my home town, I also adore the dreaming spires of Oxford, UK, where I read medical history. I now see myself as a proud citizen of both cities, but for the time being am living in Oxford (although I go to Perth as often as I can). I use my research and legal skills to make my historical novels as accurate as possible, and my imagination to make them as entertaining as I can.
