Farrier's Son

A captivating novel of a son's search for his fugitive father on the Australian colonial frontier. The harshness of colonial rule in Australia during the 1870s equalled that practised in mother England. Floggings, jailings in squalid conditions and death by hanging were prescriptive measures for those who dared to assert themselves. When Tom Simpson, a farrier for the mounted police, murders a trooper he knows that the gallows await his capture. He flees, boarding a sailing ship that slips from Sydney harbour under the cover of darkness. Two years later his son Barney, a daring twenty year old, is told of his father's whereabouts. Barney sails north to the gold rush port of Cooktown where thousands of men and a sprinkling of women scramble for a share of gold. From here he begins his search, inspecting shod horses for his father's trade mark shoeing. The dark secrets of the frontier town are revealed as Barney delves deeper. His investigations take him to places way beyond his imagination, challenging his courage and at times his sanity. He is unaware that his love affair with a society lady holds the key to his father's freedom. This story of mystery and intrigue, woven into the fabric of frontier life relives the gold rush era of early Australia.