A map into the past. A long-lost young woman. And a thirty-year family
mystery.
The Hunter Valley, 1880. Evie Ludgrove loves to chart the landscape
around her home--hardly surprising since she grew up in the shadow of
her father's obsession with the great Australian explorer Dr. Ludwig
Leichhardt. So when an advertisement appears in The Bulletin magazine
offering a thousand-pound reward for proof of where Leichhardt met his
fate, Evie is determined to use her father's papers to unravel the
secret. But when Evie sets out to prove her theory, she vanishes without
a trace, leaving behind a mystery that haunts her family for thirty
years.
Letitia Rawlings arrives at the family estate in her Ford Model T to
inform her great-aunt Olivia of a loss in their family. But Letitia is
also escaping her own problems--her brother's sudden death, her mother's
scheming, and her dissatisfaction with the life planned out for her. So
when Letitia discovers a beautifully illustrated map that might hold a
clue to the fate of her missing aunt, Evie Ludgrove, she sets out to
discover the truth. But all is not as it seems, and Letitia begins to
realize that solving the mystery of her family's past could offer as
much peril as redemption.
A gripping historical mystery for fans of Kate Morton and Natasha
Lester's The Paris Seamstress, The Cartographer's Secret follows a
young woman's quest to heal a family rift as she becomes entangled in
one of Australia's greatest historical puzzles.
"A galvanizing, immersive adventure . . . forcing the characters to
reckon with the choice found at the crux of passion and loyalty and the
power of shared blood that can either destroy or heal." --Joy Callaway,
international bestselling author of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society
- Daphne du Maurier Award Winner, 2021
- Historical story with both romance and mystery
- Full-length, stand-alone novel (c. 104,000 words)
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs