The Pearler’s Wife by Roxane Dhand

A distant land. A dangerous husband. A forbidden love.      

The year is 1912. Nineteen-year-old Maisie Porter watches from the deck of the SS Oceanic as England fades from view. Her destination is Buccaneer Bay in Australia’s far north-west. Her fate: marriage to distant cousin Maitland Sinclair, a man she has never met.

When Maisie arrives in her new home, she finds a stifling small town bound by Victorian morals. Shocked at her new husband’s callous behaviour towards her, she is increasingly drawn to William Cooper, a British diver she met on board ship. It soon becomes clear that secrets surround her husband, as turbulent as the waters that crash against the bay. Secrets that somehow link to her own family – and secrets that put Cooper and his fellow British divers in great danger…

From the drawing rooms of London to the latticed verandas and gambling dens of Buccaneer Bay, The Pearler’s Wifeis a sweeping, epic read, inspired by a lost moment in history.

Roxane Dhand studied English and French at London University. After graduating, she had a career in public relations in both Switzerland and London, before teaching French in the maintained and private sectors. She now writes full time and lives in Winchester, England.