The
Hand of Glory
What
if France and Britain had both colonised Australia? Australia's gold rush as it
might have been...
Melbourne,
September 1854: people from all over the world are arriving in the Victorian
capital.
Sylvia
Hoveden, an independent and feisty English girl, has travelled to Melbourne to
find her missing twin brother, feared to be in grave danger, perhaps even dead.
Anje
Otsoa, an undercover agent for the Governor of Esperance, has come to Melbourne
to find the kidnapped French Count of Tremille
Are
the two disappearances somehow related? Both Sylvia and Anje are about to be
plunged into a nest of intrigue, conspiracy and danger far greater than any they
could have imagined. Because someone is waiting, watching ... and when that
person is revealed, there's no telling what might happen...
Award-winning
author Sophie Masson has created a fascinating parallel history of Australia-an
exotic backdrop to this engrossing tale of murder, mystery and the supernatural.
...a
lively plot with well-defined settings and the flair of an imaginative pen
behind it.' -Courier
Mail
'Throw
in some ESP, a Basque spy, a pickpocket and the mysterious "Ghost in the
Daylight". and you have a derring-do YA adventure in the Victorian
melodrama tradition. This step outside the fantasy genre demonstrates Masson's
versatility as a writer...' -Australian Bookseller & Publisher
Mock
documents related to the story:
Extract
from A Traveller's Guide to the Colony of
Esperance. Published Paris, 1850.
The
colony of Esperance,
which occupies the
south-west of Western Australia, was founded in 1795, in part to deal with
some of the Jacobin
conspiracy of 1792, which was narrowly averted by General Lafayette, commander
of King Louis XVI's army. The French flag was planted in the soil of the new
colony on May 18th, 1795, by the first governor, Captain (and later, General)
Napoleon Bonaparte, who had come with the first cargo of settlers and convicts
in a fleet of twelve ships. The ships were filled with landless peasants and
poor city people who were granted free passage; civil and political prisoners
who were offered reduced sentences if they went out to be pioneers; and black
slaves from French West Africa and Haiti who were sent out and soon granted
their freedom. All of these people became known as the Voudespers and
Esperantists.
Timber,
wine and whale products are Esperance's main exports. Subsidies from France
help to keep it afloat, but it also has a vibrant economy of its own, and is
self-sufficient in food. Travellers to Esperance who are interested in the
natural world will find much to recommend it. Hunting and fishing are the main
pastimes.
From
The Aurifer Advocate September, 1854
For
all Esperantists in Aurifer. Ladies and Gentlemen: Do not forget us! Come back to Esperance when you
have made your fortune. And even if you have not., the colony needs you!
The
Aurifer Atheneum
Library wishes to announce that it
has obtained many new books, periodicals, journals, etc, for the delight of
its subscribers and travellers: including new works on the colonies of
Victoria, New South Wales and on the French colony of Esperance.
New
works from the pens of Mr Charles Dickens, Miss Emily Bronte, Miss Charlotte
Bronte and many more. Also copies of London Society, Punch, The Times and a
great deal more besides.
At
its rooms in Gold Street, Aurifer
Where you can order the book:
