It’s summer and time to get comfortable under an umbrella in the garden or maybe lie on a beach towel and enjoy two new books by Sunshine Coast authors, Jenny Wellington and Ian Laver.
Damengin by Jenny Wellington
A country town is suffering the worst drought in living memory and its locals are desperately waiting for drought relief. Sadly, the money has been sent and then spent by the council’s shire clerk, Shifty Grey, and other villains which include the local bank manager.
Politics, embezzlement, romance, bikies, Sydney tattoo parlours and lots of laughs fill its pages. Damengin is a delight.
Jenny was a Coast rural reporter for many years with stints for Noosa, Nambour and Gympie newspapers, plus two years in Canberra as press secretary for a federal senator.
She is also married to former independent MP for Nicklin, Peter Wellington, so she is well qualified to write about the politics and life in a bush town like Damengin and paint its colourful characters—some honest, some shonky.
She and Peter live on a cattle farm close to Kenilworth and she told Noosa Today the idea for the book (her first) came to her during the Covid lockdown.
“All these characters I had met in my years a journalist were rolling round in my head, saying let me out.”
Noosa will have the chance to hear Jenny talk about Damengin next month when she is guest speaker at Meet the Author Day at Noosaville Library on Thursday 16 February, at 10.30am.
Damengin is on sale Annie’s Books on Peregian, Berkelouw Books at Eumundi, Booktopia, Amazon, Angus and Robertson and Noosa Book Store. RRP is $28.95. The audio is available on Amazon audible.
Uneasy by Ian Laver
Another novel with a distinctly Queensland colouring is Uneasy, an easy-read thriller.
Set in the late 1990s in Brisbane, it depicts Queensland detective, Rodney FitzMichael who has been demoted because of a slapping incident, caught on video, while interviewing a prisoner.
His previous subordinate, Lerlene Diplock, is now his boss and they need to reconcile their differences as they investigate the attempted abduction of a five-year-old boy and the theft of rare orchids.
The trail moves from Brisbane to the hinterland and a farm near Esk, and Fitzy must fight with more than his fists to reinstate his standing with the police.
Uneasy is the first in a series and, according to Ian, the theme for the next book is Fitzy on the way back so, naturally, the title is Comeback.
Said Ian, “He has to restore his credibility and show his bosses that he’s learnt his lesson. Naturally that will be hindered by some others around him who have an axe to grind.”
A former workplace assessor, Ian has lived on the Coast since 1974 and has several short stories awaiting publication. He has received numerous writing awards, including two Emerging Writer Awards from the Henry Lawson Society– and has found time to start a Japanese poetry haiku group with the Noosa Arts and Crafts Association at Wallace House.
Uneasy is available online and at Berkelouw Books, Eumundi, The Bookshop, Caloundra and Wallace House. RRP is $25.
