Second edition of the third book in the Crocodile Dreaming Series. Now substantially revised and improved.
English backpacker, Susan, is on trial for murder in Australia . The tabloids say she killed her lover, fed his body to crocodiles then hid the evidence.
She refuses to say what happened. She is trapped within a jail cell and inside her mind in a place of guilt,horror and emptiness. Her only companion is a dark creature, a spirit of an ancient crocodile, which inhabits her dreams.
Only one person knows and can help her. But he and his helicopter have vanished in the place that locals call The Empty Place. Only a few fragments of metal found washed out to sea indicate where he went. Everyone is convinced he has perished.
Is there any way out for Susan. She is determined to plead guilty to protect her child from the deeds of the father. She refuses to reveal what occurred. She awaits conviction and sentencing, expecting to spend her life in jail.
But the detective who discovered Susan's identity continues to seek the truth. He knows there must be another story to explain why. He must discover the past of this man she murdered to unlock the secret. The rest of officialdom just wants to lock this girl up and throw away the key.
As time ticks away towards the trial, Susan's sanity is falling apart - guilt for what she has done, lonely depression at the prospect of years in prison without her child. She lost hope when the helicopter vanishes and lives inside herself in her own empty place. Yet she must still keep alive the fathers good legacy for the sake of the child.
In her mind she sees an escape, she will return to her lover and his crocodile spirit - end it all and be free of this misery.
Her friends and the detective suspect her suicide plans. They are desperate to help but powerless to protect her from herself. They must keep seeking truth. It is a race against time. Can the truth be uncovered before the trial ends.
Susan is increasingly desperate too. She wants her escape, she must keep the truth hidden, the investigation is closing in. She must divert them. She has a plan, her own death will be the diversion and will bury the secret forever.
Autorentext
Graham Wilson lives in Sydney Australia. He has completed and published eleven separate books, and also a range of combined novel box sets. He is working on two new books
Published books comprise two series,
1. The Old Balmain House Series
2. . The Crocodile Dreaming Series
He has also written a family memoir. Arnhem's Kaleidoscope Children
The first series starts with a novel called Little Lost Girl, based on an old a weatherboard cottage in Sydney where the author lived. Here a photo was discovered of a small girl who lived and died about 100 years ago. The book imagines the story of her life and family, based in the real Balmain, an early inner Sydney suburb, with its locations and historical events providing part of the story background. The second novel in this series, Lizzie's Tale builds on the Old Balmain House setting, It is the story of a working class teenage girl who lives in this same house in the 1950s and 1960s, It tells of how, when she becomes pregnant she is determined not to surrender her baby for adoption, and of her struggle to survive in this unforgiving society. The third novel in this series, Devil's Choice, follows the next generation of the family in Lizzie's Tale. Lizzie's daughter is faced with the awful choice of whether to seek the help of one of her mother's rapists' in trying to save the life of her own daughter who is inflicted with an incurable disease.
The Crocodile Dreaming Series comprises five novels based in Outback Australia. The first novel Just Visiting.is the story of an English backpacker, Susan, who visits the Northern Territory and becomes captivated and in great danger from a man who loves crocodiles. The second book in the series, The Diary, follows the consequences of the first book based around the discovery of this man's remains and his diary and Susan, being placed on trial for murder. The third book, The Empty Place, is about Susan's struggle to retain her sanity in jail while her family and friends desperately try to find out what really happened on that fateful day before it is too late. In Lost Girls Susan vanishes and it tells the story of the search for her and four other lost girls whose passports were found in the possession of the man she killed. The final book in the series, Sunlit Shadow Dance is the story of a girl who appears in a remote aboriginal community in North Queensland, without any memory except for a name. It tells how she rebuil...