Who Are You, Linda Condrick? - Hardcover

Carlon, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569472580 ISBN 13: 9781569472583

Publisher: Soho Press, 2002

Synopsis

A brushfire leaves behind a charred body of a swagman and many questions about whether the death was a murder or a terrible accident and uncovers the many dark secrets of the Forst family.

About this title

From the Publisher

The contentious relatives living on the remote Forst sheep station are united against an interloper from Sydney who was hired to nurse old Mrs. Forst in her last illness. Now the heir, Gregory Forst, has become engaged to marry her and the others fear that they will be turned out of the valley. A bushfire rages, threatening all of their homesteads. And then, the charred body of a swagman is found. How did he die? Could he have been murdered? By the outsider, the nurse? Who, really, is Linda Condrick?

Patricia Carlon lives in Sydney. She has written fourteen crime novels; seven are now available from Soho Press.

From Publishers Weekly

First published in 1962, this mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest from Australian Carlon (Death by Demonstration) still packs a punch. The aftermath of a fire in the outback reveals the body of a "swaggie," or drifter, with whom nurse Linda Condrick had spoken only a short time before. Certain locals overheard their conversation, and as soon as the fire is ruled out as the victim's cause of death, tongues start to wag. Linda has come to Leumeah Valley, a hard-earned, hard-working sheep station, to care for the Forst family matriarch. Soon after, grandson Gregory Forst decides to make Linda the new mistress of Leumeah. When old Mrs. Forst passes on, she leaves her entire estate to Gregory. The rest of the family, who've spent their lives sponging from Mrs. Forst, react like circling carnivores, and Linda is soon the focus of everyone's suspicions except Gregory and teenager Rowena Searle. Rowena, who'd come to live with the Forsts after her parents' death, is Gregory's only support as they valiantly defend Linda from the rest of the pack. When Inspector Quince comes out to investigate, he keeps Rowena close at hand and uses her well-known skill of eavesdropping. What does anyone really know about this Linda Condrick person? Prior to her appearance as a nurse, she seems to have had no existence at all. Why has she really come to Leumeah Valley? Carlon has masterfully put together a suspenseful read that will keep you guessing and misguessing right up to the last page.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1569472580
• ISBN 13: 9781569472583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 189