PAPER DAISIES by Kim Kelly
It’s December, 1900, and Berylda Jones is heading home to Bathurst for Christmas. Tragically, ‘home’ is where she and her beloved sister Greta live in terror, under the control of their sadistic Uncle Alec.
But Berylda has a plan, borne out of desperation, to free herself and Greta from Alec for good – if she can only find the courage to execute it.
On New Year’s Eve, just as Alec tightens his grip on the sisters, a stranger arrives at their gate – Ben Wilberry, a botanist in search of a particular native wildflower, with his friend, the artist Cosmo Thompson.
Ben is oblivious to what depravity lies beyond this threshold and what follows is a journey that will take him and Berylda, and Greta and Cosmo, out to the old gold rush town of Hill End in search of a means to cure evil and a solution to what seems an impossible situation.
Against the tumultuous backdrop of Australian Federation and the coming of the Women’s Vote, Paper Daisies is a story of what it means to find moral courage, of a crime that must be committed to see justice done and a sweet love that flourishes against the odds.
Kim Kelly is a fabulous local author and this, her fourth book, is set between Hill End and Manildra. In a year when domestic violence is regularly in the news, this book shows that this is not a new problem but one that has been plaguing women over the centuries. We have just finished reading this book and highly recommend it.