Port Dolorosa

Josh Farro is charismatic and restless, a marijuana smuggler on the run having snatched his children and sailed out of the country. His most recent drug venture has stalled and he has enemies.


Rosa Brand is a career woman at a turning point in her life. When her sister’s children are kidnapped by their father, murky personal history drives her obsession to retrieve them.


McGuire is a wandering expat sailor with a wild and tragic history. He has a sailing boat in Manila which Rosa will need to pursue Josh and the children.


Here is a complex and layered adventure-thriller in which the settings – comfortable, secure Australia and the exotic, morally foggy Philippines – contrast as sharply as the vividly drawn characters. Beneath the drama of the action it is a story of love and letting go, and of the irrevocable love between parents and children.


This book simply oozes experience!


Whether we are talking the obviously authentic sailing passages, the deep analysis of her characters’ thoughts and motives, South-East Asia and its seemingly limitless complexities; both human and navigational; or even her understanding of Harry’s thoughts as she uses his eyes to keep the reader up-to-date with Josh and the kids, one must decide how much is direct experience and how much is keen observation using her background as a psychologist and her time in Asia on her own yacht. There is a lingering suspicion of the autobiographical; that Jill was Rosa in a past life, but we will never be sure, and that’s the way it should remain.