AustLit

'A retired couple stumbles on an old mystery ...

'... they don't suspect the power of history, and the modern danger it creates.

'Water, ships, boats, and boatmen are part and parcel of Venice. When Denise and Roger arrive by yacht, they're bewildered by the mystery of a missing map; a convent's tourist attraction. 

'An ancient quest leads the couple into modern dangers; both of them alarmed and panicking. But even the help of brilliant Professor Bryn Awbrey can't stop the ruthlessness of crooks, who care only for money. 

'Everyone has their own particular brand of fear.  

'It interrupts, slows, and stops us all. But it must finally be faced.

'Through history, the missing map fills whoever finds it with dread; from a luckless sea captain to an impatient nun.

'Can fear keep the map hidden forever? 

'The Cartographer of Venice is a story that straddles two timelines. The history, food, locations, and mystery of Venice are as vivid today as they were in the 1500s. Become enchanted by the canal city's magic, and let yourself feel that subtle tingle of fear. You will never look at a map in the same way again.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'"A clever and complex cross-genre novel that doesn't quite fit your typical time-travel or dual era genre."  -- Money in the Mattress

'Loretta Groombridge thinks she's made a friend when Tikki Foy arrives in Venice as her employer's house guest. Professor Bryn Awbrey is renowned for his brilliance in solving literary puzzles ... and for his cluttered home, which Loretta is paid to organize. 

'But the newly-arrived guest distracts the professor and pulls him away. Something she's found hints of lost papers by Franz Kafka, famous Czech short-story writer of the 1920s. The possibility is tantalizing, but Loretta suspects a more sinister side to Tikki's story. Her weird behaviour and the danger and complication she attracts seem exaggerated and unwarranted. Who is pushing her to this; her library colleague, or a weird character who doggedly follows them? A chase takes place, tugging the women to Perth on a dizzy pursuit.

'Loneliness, suspicion, and fear of losing her place in Bryn Awbrey's life whirl Loretta into a spiral of distrust and disappointment. Tikki pitches against her. Venice becomes a haunting, suspicious place.

'What is found in the end confounds even the professor's logic.
 

'The Frozen Sea is a literary adventure, a chase for treasure and truth, and an exploration of what it means to be lonely. Historical vignettes bring Kafka and his 1920s contemporaries to life, and weave together history and present-day dilemmas.

'You'll think of it as one of those novels you couldn't put down.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Conflict on Kangaroo Island takes place in 1913 in South Australia, when talk of war in Europe is intensifying, and Germany is both customer and potential enemy of the island’s resources. Mystery and suspense, history and fascinating characters form an enthralling whole.

'‘You certainly have a habit of nosing your way into other people’s business!’ Sergeant Lawrence of the Kangaroo Island police sees Pansy Pearce as an annoying busybody, and many others agree.

'Ugly strife on the island is already causing conflict between farmers and those aiming to preserve indigenous species. When this inquisitive yet compassionate young woman tries to defend victims of ignorance, social prejudice and violence, she finds herself in clashes on several fronts. But real danger threatens when she steps into the mysterious affairs of the Dodd family; while Pansy fights a secret internal battle of identity.' (Publication summary)

'At a crumbling but beautiful villa on the Fiesole hills outside Florence, four siblings reunite for the funeral of their mother, Nina Larkin. They bring with them light suitcases, and hearts heavy not only with grief, but also with small mysteries from childhood, grown large with age and time. All in their fifties now, and all with their particular variety of experiences, they remember what it was like to holiday in those hills. Youthful memories rarely match; the four recall their mother very differently. The inheritance they hope to take away is bound up in Nina Larkin’s will. The only thing they agree about is its complexity. A Funeral in Fiesole is a four-fold weave of memories told in turn by Paola, Brod, Suzanna and Nigel. Their youthful dreams are revealed, together with their hopes for the future. Their problems – which might be solved by their mother’s will – threaten to make something simple rather complicated' (publication blurb).

'A doctor returns to a dilapidated mansion after 25 years, seeking something he thinks he saw on his honeymoon. Obsessed about the house and its history, he has dreams of restoring it and starting a business. Uncertain whether his deteriorating marriage will sustain such a plan, unsure whether a madcap scheme to start a guesthouse is even worth considering, he becomes as haunted as the locals say the house is. Memories, visions and dreams merge to present something inescapable; the story of a young woman whose life, whose possessions, could not be extinguished or destroyed by time or death.

Based on local anecdotes and landmarks, The White Lady of Marsaxlokk is a melancholic story of the melding of history into present day. It takes the reader on a captivating journey through time, on a feasible excursion that is both enchanting and just a little bit eerie.'

[Source: Yellow Teapot Books]

According to Luke is a thrilling romantic novel of secrecy, symbols, faith, and forbidden love. It takes the reader on a quest for an ancient truth so powerful it disturbs the Catholic Church: a truth so explosive it attracts violent separatists and demands a ransom of millions. Follow a chase that charges from Venice to Malta, and then to Ravenna: a chase that escalates to disaster in Damascus, until a solution is found in the Victorian countryside in Australia (author's website).

According to Luke features the secondary character Prof Bryn Awbrey, an expert in semiotics. He later appears in Dingli's 2013 novel The Hidden Auditorium ('Rosanne Dingli, The Hidden Auditorium And Why Writing Never Ends,' interview with Nick Wales 2013).

'Selby Green tries to change her life, but finds she cannot control the events that take her life and turn it inside-out. Edmund Eben's life is changed by war and politics, he thinks, but women exert the most significant, moving shifts in him. Whether these two people ever meet is up to how successfully they disappear from their ordinary existence. How to Disappear is a heart wrenching, heartwarming novel in two parts, which links the lives of a disappointed woman living a grey existence and a man whose harsh migrant experience does not prepare him for love' (publication blurb).

'Photojournalist Bart Zacharin's camera doesn't lie, but his mysterious new lover, Minnie Cuff, lies for a living. Love-struck Bart can't get that into focus until he follows her from Australia on her flimsily excused trip to Europe and becomes embroiled in an obscure web of international organised crime, deception and death' (publisher blurb).

'This collection of thirteen stories brings Rosanne Dingli's recollections of Malta vividly to life. Some are family anecdotes, some are folkloric, and others are figments of the author's imagination. The reader's task is to distinguish which is which. In all the stories, one can feel the atmosphere and enjoy the descriptions of place, time and people, whether they embellish a mystery, a journey, a lover's dilemma or a family saga' (publication blurb).

When Richard Wagner died in Venice in 1883, it was the end of a creative and tumultuous life. His family grieved, and the world lost a brilliant composer. Nearly 130 years later antiques dealer Nic Manton is led to a valuable pendant he feels provides a solution to his precarious finances. With no idea of its meaning or provenance, he is mystified why the pendant creates such fear and confusion, and aggravates rather than solves his problems. Its apparent owner is beautiful but erratic. As she leads him from Rome to Venice and then to Malta, Austria and Germany, Manton becomes increasingly aware that there is a perplexing secret about Richard Wagner’s life and works, and that this secret is also dangerous. A melancholic widow and a brilliant but vague professor are willing to help. But Manton doubts whether they can.

The Hidden Auditorium is a companion novel to According to Luke (2011). Both works feature the secondary character Prof Bryn Awbrey, an expert in semiotics ('Rosanne Dingli, The Hidden Auditorium And Why Writing Never Ends,' interview with Nick Wales 2013).

[Source: Yellow Teapot Books]

Three lives are disrupted when Martin Ainsworth, a disgraced English teacher, retreats to his New England hometown of Armidale, in Australia. Martin plans a reflective spell while he pulls his life into shape but this is overturned when he accidentally meets Annie Marshall, his first love all those years ago. Now she is a wife and mother. But Annie has a secret.

'It is 1877. The city of Antwerp in Belgium is throwing open its gates to the world of trade and commerce. Using only primitive equipment and experimental chemicals, a promising photographer attempts to make a visual record of his rapidly-changing city. Obsession and toxicity are severe hurdles, which the love of his young wife might temper and ease.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Rosanne Dingli's stories deal with art, music, and literature, and are intensely concerned with location and atmosphere. They combine diverse meanings of intimacy experienced by a fascinating assortment of characters, at different times, in different places.

Uneasy familiarity between friends thrown together by a difficult love for one woman, or the bond of siblings, are forms of intimacy that can border on contempt. Artists, musicians and writers can have such similar intense feelings ... or such diverse emotions, about similar situations. Lovers' tenderness can endure because of deep understanding. Betrayal, confusion and joy live side-by-side with disappointment, bewilderment and elation, and always, there is that sense of involvement, of relationship.

This is an excursion into how close, or how distant, two individuals can feel. Enjoy this special bijou collection of fifteen previously published and awarded stories' (publisher blurb).