Fern Vale; Or, The Queensland Squatter. Volume 3

In the sun-baked colony of Queensland, a party of friends sets out for a day at the races, their horses fresh and their spirits high. But beneath the social gaiety of horse rides and country dances lurks a wounded heart: John Ferguson watches helplessly as Eleanor Rainsfield, the woman he loves, remains engaged to another man. When an altercation with the boorish Bob Smithers escalates to a challenge of honor, the festive atmosphere curdles into something darker. Colin Munro's third volume of Fern Vale captures colonial Australian society at its most vibrant and most precarious, balancing the pleasures of riding across the bush, the excitement of the Brompton races, and the dangerous games of love and reputation. The characters move through a world where a woman's hand and a man's honor can both be won or lost in a single afternoon. For readers who relish Victorian social drama with an Australian edge, this is a portrait of settlers trying to build civilization while their own passions threaten to tear it apart.