Ellie
Wilding has been running from her past, but when the residents of Half
Moon Bay call for help she knows it's finally time to return home. As
an international photojournalist, she's used to violence in war zones,
but she's shocked when it erupts in the sleepy hamlet on the north coast
of New South Wales, threatening all she holds dear.
Battle-weary
Nicholas Lawson walked away from his military career leaving unfinished
business. In a coastal backwater, that decision returns to haunt him.
He remembers all too vividly his last lethal assignment in Afghanistan
when Ellie's sister, Nina, was shot and killed. Ellie's been in his
dreams ever since, even if she doesn't remember him…
As
a storm rages and floodwaters rise, Ellie struggles to save her
community. But who can she trust? Nick Lawson, the dangerously
attractive stranger with secrets, or an old friend who's never let her
down?
The story behind the story – Half Moon Bay.
Helene Young
Do you ever read the newspaper and think, ‘No way could that be true? How could something so horrible happen?’
I do that regularly. Often it’s a crime so
horrific that I can’t comprehend a person being capable of such cruelty.
Other times it’s a story that makes me cry with the scale of the
tragedy. As a writer those moments frequently become the catalyst for a
new story.
My Border Watch trilogy dealt with the threat
of home grown terrorism, people trafficking, motorcycle gangs with
their drugs, arms and violence, and the last book, Burning Lies, delved
into the psyche of an arsonist. The research was fascinating and all
three books are grounded in reality.
Half Moon Bay, my latest story, started life
as a story about a corrupt council and a land grab. When I was twelve
years old we lived in a small hamlet at Currumbin Beach on the southern
Gold Coast. At the time there
was uproar over a proposed road development that cut a swathe through
bush land and divided the community. It was the first time I really
appreciated how people-power could be harnessed. I remember being very
proud when my letter to the editor was published in the Courier Mail
newspaper.
While I was busy writing the first draft of
Half Moon Bay I read a news story about a journalist killed on
assignment in Iraq. My sister was a journalist for many years so I had a
small understanding of what drives people to put their lives on the
line to report the news. I’m not talking ‘News of the World’
sensationalism here, but the sort of reporting that can change your
opinion in an informed way, without favour or bias.
It started me thinking about a war
correspondent’s motivation and how they coped with the traumas they see
up close and personal. Of course my imagination didn’t stop there. Off
it went on a tangent about a journalist who becomes complicit in a crime
in order to prove her point. From
there it was a matter of interweaving the plots around a small
community on the Northern New South Wales coast called Half Moon Bay.
My heroine, Ellie, is feisty but reserved.
Life hasn’t always been kind to her so she’s happy to hide behind her
camera and let the photos tell the story, but she’s weary of battle
zones and wary of love.
Nick Lawson is the quintessential battle
scarred soldier returning after a long and difficult tour of duty. He’s
not looking for love any more than Ellie is, but when they find
themselves on opposing sides the tension can’t help but ramp up.
Half Moon Bay is a fast paced action-filled
story of corruption, betrayal and a community’s fighting spirit set in
today’s world. It’s also a story of how love can blossom in the most
unlikely of places.
Multi-award
winning author, Helene Young, lives aboard a catamaran moored near the Great
Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea. She shares her sailing adventures with her
husband and their dog, Zeus. Her work as a senior captain with a major regional
airline takes her all over Australia and she draws inspiration for her stories
from the communities she visits.
She won the
Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) Romantic Book of the Year Award in 2011 and
2012. She was also voted most popular romantic suspense author by the Romance
Readers of Australia (ARRA) in 2010 and 2011, and shortlisted for the same
award in 2012.
Helene is the custodian of several thousand bees and in what spare
time she has left, loves to read and travel.
Find Helene at
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
