Murder at Thornwood Park
by Joan Sauers
Allen & Unwin
Joan Sauers’ pedigree as an accomplished screenwriter is evident in the vivid visual descriptions found in her previous two murder mysteries set in Australia’s Southern Highlands. Echo Lake and Whisky Valley feature misty forests, cosy pubs, unsolved murders and endless cups of tea.
These novels also introduce historian and amateur sleuth Rose McHugh, who has been described as a “feminist Miss Marple”. Rose works at the Highlands Area Museum and lives next to the Belanglo State Forest, about two hours from Sydney.
The location, with its notorious history of murders, including those committed by Ivan Milat, is enough to send shivers down the reader’s spine. Then there is Thornwood Park itself, a ghostly manor house that has become a ruin.
Thornwood Park hides generations of secrets from a dynastic family that fell into decline along with the crumbling family mansion. The last person to live there was the reclusive heiress Judith Longworth, who bequeathed the historical contents of her estate to Rose and the Highlands Area Museum.
Rose becomes obsessed with uncovering why Thornwood Park was left to decay and why its heiress withdrew from society. When she discovers a silver cigar case containing costume jewellery, she realises she has found something the Longworth women would not have worn.
Using her research skills, Rose uncovers a series of decades-old reports about women who went missing after spending time at the grand estate during World War II. She does not know whether she has been reading too much detective fiction, but she begins to suspect she has stumbled upon the trophies of a serial killer.
Rose also draws inspiration from a statue in the town of Charlotte Atkinson, a colonial-era woman who escaped a violent husband and won custody of her children at a time when no woman had done so before.
With the help of her friend, local journalist Jazzy Nolan, and a sympathetic police officer, Rose attempts to unearth the dark history of Thornwood Park and uncover the fate of the missing women. Invisible foes, however, will do everything in their power to stop her from discovering the truth.
Lezly Herbert
