Looking Back at a Stranger

In his twilight years, John Summers reflects on his significant collection of assets, mostly centred on his extensive grazing enterprises in New South Wales. But his wealth is the product of a vile theft as a young man, which he has not divulged to his family.

Jess MacIntyre's chaotic life runs parallel to John's, but in another part of Australia. When she reluctantly heads south from the Kimberley region of Western Australia towards an uncertain future, she encounters Thomas, John's grandson, on his way from Queensland to forge a new life managing one of his grandfather's pastoral properties in NSW.

Jessie's cattle management skills and chequered past intertwine with the lives of the much more sedate Summers family, with benefits for everyone. Her notorious past is eventually exposed, with an unexpected, life-changing outcome for Jess. However, although John shares with Jess a cryptic message from his past, he is less willing to reveal his guilty secret to his family.

Phillip Rosewarne has lived and worked in various places on the east coast of Australia, his first job being for a shipping company. After working in New Guinea, Phillip was a project clerk for the Australian government in Canberra and the Northern Territory, where he worked in Katherine and Darwin, initially for the Commonwealth Department of Works, and then for three years as head storeman for Woolworths in the Darwin area, two years either side of Cyclone Tracy. Phillip bought a cattle property in Queensland, which he operated for four years.After returning to Canberra, he spent the next twenty-five years at the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industries, as it was then known. During that time, he worked in a science bureau within several primary industry sections. He gained a Certificate of Horticulture from the Tafe College and an Applied Science Degree from the University of Canberra. Phillip always had a desire to write novels as opposed to scientific papers. He began writing shortly after leaving school, and the passion to write never left him. It was only later in life that he had the opportunity to write fiction on a more permanent basis. Phillip is currently retired, and lives in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney.