AustLit

'1830s Sydney Town - with its bar brawls, blackmail, friendship, romance, tattoos, gin and much more - is brought vividly to life as feisty prostitute Friday, naive seamstress Harrie and cunning thief Sarah try to make their way as transported convict women. Driven by madness …saved by love. ‘A door slammed shut somewhere inside Harrie, trapping all that she was and everything she’d ever been. The voices had won. She was damned. She was …no one.’ 1831: Assigned to a good family in Sydney town and now learning the art of tattoo, convict girl Harrie Clarke is still haunted by the horror of the brutal murder she and friends Friday Woolfe and Sarah Morgan committed the previous year. Powerful and vindictive criminal Bella Jackson continues to demand money in exchange for her silence regarding their crime. And just when it seems that Harrie and her fervent and long-time admirer James Downey might finally be united, an act of pure nastiness severely threatens their chances - and Harrie’s life. When things go from bad to much, much worse for Harrie, she is left teetering on the brink. But Friday, in love at last, is battling demons of her own, and Sarah is forced to lie low for fear of attracting the attention of the police. Who will be the one to rescue Harrie?' (Publication summary)