Showing results by author "Ellen Read" in All Categories

Set in 1928 in Victoria, Australia. The Thornton family made its money in the goldfields during the 1850s and the antiques trade. Their principal home is Thornton Park, a lavish mansion close to Melbourne. They also own a home and a goldmine in Daylesford, where their close friends, the Bassetti family, are part of a thriving Swiss-Italian community.

It’s 1927 in Victoria, Australia. A time after the Great War when women have more options opened to them. At a weekend house party at Thornton Park, Alexandra Thornton decides to break the news to her father that she wants to be an antiques dealer, like her father, grandfather and great-grandfather before her. Guests include Zhang Huo, a Chinese antiques dealer who, with his son, has brought a Ming dragon statue from China for Thomas Thornton, Alexandra’s father. Benedict Archer, manager of Thornton Antiques in Melbourne, is also invited.

Has Catherine Lacey been kidnapped by human hands, or has the ghost of Lacey Hall ridden away with her? Sophie, Catherine’s sister, can’t answer that question. Catherine disappeared overnight. Sophie knows that Catherine had fallen in love with the ghost of the first Sir Giles Lacey, who in 1676, had won Lacey Hall in a card game.

Benedict Archer, who is manager of Thornton Antiques in Melbourne and who has been secretly helping Alexandra learn more about her family business, is also invited. Alexandra asks Benedict and Edith Blackburn, her friend since childhood, to be with her when she approaches her father.

When Danielle Roberts inherits a boarding house in Charters Towers, her first thought is that it’s a scam. Assured by the solicitor that it isn’t, she decides to make a quick trip and sort everything out. She has no intention of staying. A pastry chef, she owns a café in Redcliffe. The first person she sees when she arrives is the last person she wants to see. Brett Bainbridge, her first boyfriend, broke her heart when he walked out on her. Now, here he is, standing in her garden bed.