Bondi, 1945–1947. The war is over, the telegrams have done their work, and Dot Campbell has been holding her days together one small routine at a time since her husband James went missing in New Guinea. She walks his Australian Terrier, Blue, along the tideline because Blue still expects the morning to happen. And invisible women, it turns out, hear everything.
These are gentle mysteries in the tradition of Jacqueline Winspear: no bodies, no gore, and no drawing-room puzzles. What Dot faces are the quiet civic wrongs of a suburb finding its feet after the war, forged notices, skimmed charities, men with council stamps who count on grieving women looking away. The Bondi Tales are the prequel to the Bondi Community Detective Agency books: this is how Dot began.
The Books
Book 1
The Saturday Morning Swimmer
The Icebergs pool is closed for safety, says the notice. The pool is fine. And the envelope Blue noses out of hiding suggests James knew exactly who profits from the lie.
Coming soon
Book 2
The Case of the Missing Lamingtons
A tray of lamingtons vanishes from the Guild kitchen, and the thief turns out to be two hungry boys in a stormwater drain. The real question is whose suburb let them get that hungry.
Coming soon
Book 3
Captain’s Cache
Small treasures are disappearing along the beachfront, a dead man's medals, a widow's hairbrush, and each theft leaves a sailor's knot behind. The police cannot be bothered. Dot can.
Coming soon
Book 4
The Tram That Stopped for Tea
No timetable admits the 12B stops at Hall Street, but it always has, long enough for the conductor's cup of tea at Chen's. Then a council notice orders it struck from the line. The notice is forged.
Coming soon
Book 5
The Ham Radio Chase
When the constable decides a stolen car simply wandered off, Dot turns to a friend's wireless set instead, and a whole state of amateur radio operators listening in the static.
Coming soon
Book 6
Bitter Sweet Thursday
Every third Thursday the widows have one hour that is entirely theirs, tea and a gramophone in a borrowed hall. Someone with a council stamp has decided the hall would be worth more empty.
Coming soon
Book 7
The Calendar
Twelve women, one charity calendar, a shilling a copy for the families the telegrams left behind. Dot counts the boxes against the print run, and the numbers refuse to match.
Coming soon
Book 8
The Christmas Hamper Heist
Forty Christmas hampers, forty-one names on the list, one parcel gone. Squaring the count leads Dot to hungry children eating what the Guild's ledger says they do not deserve.
Coming soon
Book 9
Blue’s Easter Show Adventure
Pat enters Blue in the Royal Easter Show without asking. Dot only agrees because the entry form carries a chemical smudge that no honest registrar's ink would leave.
Coming soon
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