The Cartographer's Secret

International bestselling author Tea Cooper's The Cartographer's Secret is a richly layered historical mystery about how a young woman's quest to heal a family rift becomes a quest to solve one of Australia's greatest puzzles. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Natasha Lester's The Paris Seamstress.

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.

The Cartographer's Secret, filled with buried secrets, family legacy, and an exploration of the thin line between passion and obsession, is perfect for fans of historical fiction where the setting is immersive and the seamless blend of fact and fiction brings the story and its characters to life.

Tea Cooper is an established Australian author of historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist, and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling. She is the internationally bestselling author of several novels, including The Naturalist’s Daughter; the USA TODAY bestselling The Woman in the Green Dress; The Girl in the Painting, The Cartographer's Secret, winner of the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award; and The Fossil Hunter.