Her well researched, well written plots and strong supporting characters, like cruel Bella Jackson and handsome Dr James Downey, blend together to spin a gripping yarn, spiced with highs, lows, loves, laughs, drama and murder. She gets the more risqué messages across without unnecessary crudeness. As they work through their bond in different forms of servitude, the reader follows their friendship, the physical and mental strain, and their all-important futures.Īuthor Deborah Challinor skilfully expands and elaborates on their new lives (the homebody, the thief, the seamstress, the prostitute) while keeping the voice true. Titles are Behind the Sun, Girl of Shadows, The Silk Thief, A Tattooed Heart.

Set in 1832, the travails of Friday, Rachel, Sarah and Harrie jump off the page as each book tells the story from each woman’s perspective while moving the narrative forward.

The penalties for petty crime, like the strange new land, are unforgiving. The Convict Girls four-book series written by Deborah Challinor follows four bonded female convicts Friday Woolfe, Rachel Winter, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke who are shipped from London’s infamous Newgate Prison to the penal colony of Sydney Town, New South Wales, to work off their sentences. Although hiding a terrible secret between them, these young women are resilient and struggle against the harsh conditions. In a dread-laden atmosphere of shocking sights and smells, the transportation of four convicts to the women’s gaol Parramatta Female Factory is as grim as their backstory.

Behind the sun deborah challinor