The Cartographer's Secret
A Dual Timeline Historical Mystery with a Romance Thread
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4.3 • 69 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
International bestselling author Tea Cooper's The Cartographer's Secret is a richly layered historical mystery about how a young woman's quest to heal a family rift becomes a quest to solve one of Australia's greatest puzzles. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Natasha Lester's The Paris Seamstress.
The Hunter Valley, 1880. Evie Ludgrove loves to chart the landscape around her home--hardly surprising since she grew up in the shadow of her father's obsession with the great Australian explorer Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt. So when an advertisement appears in The Bulletin magazine offering a thousand-pound reward for proof of where Leichhardt met his fate, Evie is determined to use her father's papers to unravel the secret. But when Evie sets out to prove her theory, she vanishes without a trace, leaving behind a mystery that haunts her family for thirty years.
Letitia Rawlings arrives at the family estate in her Ford Model T to inform her great-aunt Olivia of a loss in their family. But Letitia is also escaping her own problems--her brother's sudden death, her mother's scheming, and her dissatisfaction with the life planned out for her. So when Letitia discovers a beautifully illustrated map that might hold a clue to the fate of her missing aunt, Evie Ludgrove, she sets out to discover the truth. But all is not as it seems, and Letitia begins to realize that solving the mystery of her family's past could offer as much peril as redemption.
The Cartographer's Secret, filled with buried secrets, family legacy, and an exploration of the thin line between passion and obsession, is perfect for fans of historical fiction where the setting is immersive and the seamless blend of fact and fiction brings the story and its characters to life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young woman investigates her family's role in a decades-old mystery in Australian writer Cooper's moving latest (after The Girl in the Painting). In 1911, 25-year-old Lettie Rawlings's older brother, Thorne, dies in a boating accident. Lettie's mother, Miriam, sends her from Sydney to the family's horse-breeding estate to tell her great-aunt Olivia that she is now the estate's rightful heir, which Olivia disputes. Though despondent over Thorne's death, Lettie gets swept up in uncovering both what happened to her aunt Evie Ludgrove, who went missing nearly 20 years ago, as well as the disappearance decades earlier of real-life explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, which had obsessed her late grandfather. Since Olivia and Miriam are estranged, Olivia is initially wary of Lettie's surprise visit, but they become close as Lettie's research uncovers Evie's possible fate, and Lettie makes no claim on the estate. An 1880 narrative follows Evie, a gifted artist and promising mapmaker, who shares her father's preoccupation with Leichhardt; when a large reward is offered for proof of where Leichhardt died, Evie is determined to claim the reward for the cash-strapped farm, but she vanishes while pursuing a lead. Cooper gets to the heart of a family's old wounds, puzzles, and obsessions, while providing a luscious historical rendering of the landscape. This layered family saga will keep readers turning the pages.
Customer Reviews
Great Read
I really enjoyed this book. The location and time-frame made it very interesting for me. I enjoyed the characters and the story, even though it was a little rushed at the end. I will recommend the book to other readers.
The Cartographer’s Secret
Few words of mine could really come close to conveying how I feel about Ms. Cooper’s amazing storytelling. Her ability to place the reader right into the mood and surroundings of each scene makes the color, scent, and texture — as well as the expressions on each face and the thoughts within — feel completely real. I was transported from the first page through to the end. I have read several of her books so far and look forward to being absorbed into the next very soon!
Grabbed My Imagination
This book is a page-turner from beginning to end. I couldn’t stop reading!