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The Castle of Heavenly Bliss
Gerard Charles Wilson
Revised 2011 editions now available on Amazon Kindle
$3.95
ISBN 978 1 876262 08 2, 756 pages
GERDA VROUWENDIJK, under the name of Edith
Bicknell, arrives in the north-western Victorian town of Binawarra to
take up a teaching position in the local high school. The sinister Boris,
lurking in the background, seems never far away. Ms Vrouwendijk is confident
that she can keep her disguise and purpose hidden. But she has not reckoned
on Florence Barker. Miss Barker, severe spinster, feared and avoided by
the townspeople, is not what she seems. Nor has the memory of a brief
meeting fifteen years earlier in Middelburg, Holland, with the crippled
local priest, Fr van Engelen, come back to Ms Vrouwendijk. These slips in her otherwise
meticulous planning will prove critical.
Miss Barker and Fr van Engelen set about trying to discover what Edith Bicknell is doing in their obscure little country town and why she has an interest in the beautiful Estella Winterbine. A tense game of cat and mouse follows as Ms Vrouwendijk's manipulation of people and events becomes ever more complex. When a senior teacher is found dead at the bottom of a peak (called Death Rock by the local youth) and the local newspaper begins attacking the Principal of Binawarra High School, Ms Vrouwendijk's plans seem to have an unstoppable momentum. Then Estella goes missing. Then Estella goes missing. Former SAS captain and Vietnam veteran, Geoffrey Shawcross, sets off in a pursuit that takes him first to Paris and then to Holland where he finds himself outside a medieval castle in a southern coastal province. But he is not sure whether he is in the right place. Miss Barker is not there to advise; she has also gone missing.
Themes of the Goddess and neo-Gnosticism are revealed as the story progresses. This is the first book in the Winterbine trilogy. First edition released January 2005.
REVISED EDITION
There is no change to the story
in the revised ebook 2011 edition. There is a
thorough trimming and polishing of the writing, some reordering of the
material, and some important adjustments to bring the story into line with
the second book, In This Vales of Tears.
Reader comment on the revised edition.
'I have read your revised edition of The Castle of
Heavenly Bliss and am very impressed. It is much tighter and I found the
story flowed better with a few loose ends better explained. There was no
point in this edition where my mind wandered. I cannot wait to read the
third book.'
Gay Smith, Blaxland NSW
Purchase Kindle edition here
REVIEWS
Ian MacDonald, Annals Australasia
Hedda Dooley, The Dutch Courier
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