Dorothy Fowler (2)

A carefully constructed mystery on at least two levels. The historical site that Chloe is investigating has been part of her family for a century. It is about to be sold for land development and so the owner, Chloe's cousin Shane, has commissioned her to do an archaeological survey. Over a century ago this was a reclusive mission station, but then it was burnt down. There are some bodies buried on the site and they need to be found and moved to a nearby cemetery.

Chloe's family seem to have lost whatever they knew about the Mission, and they don't even know where the mass grave is.

The reader has the advantage of being privy to a diary written in the 1880s before the fire and so we chart a mystery on that level, at the same time as participating in Chloe's dig. But there is at least one person who doesn't want the past dug up, and local vandals do their best to impede the progress of the excavation. And there is something more serious than vandalism underneath everything.

Dorothy Fowler wrote this novel in 2008 as her coursework for the Master of Creative Writing at Auckland University.… (altro)

This is a promising first book by this author. The premise of the story , I thought was quite credible.
Chloe returns to the Kaipara Harbour district in a professional capacity, to excavate a site once farmed by her family and now being developed by extended family. The land had been the site of a religious community in the 1880's, but was destroyed by fire. As the dig progresses, the archaeologists become aware of local resistance to the excavation, as the site holds clues to the events on the night of the fire and a more recent unsolved murder.… (altro)