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The Castle of Heavenly Bliss
Gerard Charles Wilson
Revised October 2009
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. Former SAS captain and Vietnam veteran, Geoffrey Shawcross, sets off in pursuit.
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.
The book is now available in a handy A4 e-book format, $7.95 for download and $9.95 for CD incl. postage Australia. A new updated paperback edition will be available when the third book in the Winterbine trilogy is released 2011.
Payment can be made by credit card via Pay Pal
Read the first two chapters: Chapter One Chapter Two
REVIEWS
Ian MacDonald, Annals Australasia
Hedda Dooley, The Dutch Courier
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