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Ian Townsend is a journalist who has been reporting about Queensland’s political and social issues for the best part of two decades.
The Devil's Eye, Courtesy Fourth Estate
The Devil’s Eye, published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, is his second novel and it is another work of fiction based on true events.
On March the 4th, 1899, more than 100 schooners, luggers and cutters are gathered in the calm of Bathurst Bay, under the lee of Cape Melville, to celebrate the end of the working week and a day off.
Out to sea, an intense cyclone named Mahina was speeding towards them – the deadliest and most intense storm in recorded Australian history.
The Devil’s Eye is based on the true events of what became known as the pearling disaster of 1899.
Ian’s first novel Affection is set in 1900 and based on a true story of what happened when bubonic plague came to Australia, and how a few doctors tried to stop it.
What’s the critics are saying…
“… this is fiction at its dramatic best … It is history with greater resonance than a text-book.”
The Courier Mail
“The characters remain with the reader long after the tale is told, and that surely is what good writing is all about.”
ABC Radio
“Breathtaking. Far more chilling than any murder mystery.”
Cairns Sun
“A fascinating tale of commercial exploitation, inter-racial relationships and a natural disaster. Townsend has done a wonderful job in recreating this terrible event.”
The Examiner, Launceston
“Townsend follows in (Thea Astley’s) considerable footsteps … (He) draws the force of a cyclone with true authenticity, and the destructive effects on a motley collection of people … Part of the accomplishment of this novel is its use of dialogue, presented without anachronisms, direct as a script, and loaded with covert meaning … The Devil’s Eye is vivid, complex and assured.”
Sunday Age Book of the Week
