Ulf: An Erik Portland Story

by Geoff Spedding

Ulf is a small former gold-mining town in the hill country of Victoria, Australia. A young woman disappears one night, so completely that a massive search effort fails to find any trace her. Fifteen years later, Erik Portland, a retired clergyman, is challenged to seek out what happened. His research leads him into danger as someone appears to feel he might discover something he shouldn't. He travels to Melbourne where, as some characters seem inclined to say "the plot thickens". The story features hard-working Victoria Police personnel, typically fascinating small-town Australian country characters, eco-terrorists, union officials, corrupt politics, a country newspaper and its staff, all contributing to the on-going mystery of the girl's disappearance. Over all the intrigue is the loveliness of the Australian bush and its wild inhabitants.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 27, 2015

About the author

Geoff Spedding is a New Zealand-born writer who lives in Rome, Italy. His captivation by the great valley of Umbria had led to this novel which is a tribute to this part of Italy. He has lived in New Zealand, canada and Australia as well as Italy. He is the author of "Seeking Residenza", a portrait of the difficulties he encountered with Italian bureaucracy; "Some Special People", a collection of about 600 biographies of people interred in the Cimitero Acattolico (Protestant Cemetery) in Rome; "Ulf", a mystery novel set in the Victorian hillcountry in Australia and is currently occupied in writing "Ash", a sequel to "Ulf". In what he describes as his 'previous life', he has, among other things, been a teacher, broadcaster, journalist, actor, labourer, house builder, truck driver, photographer, timber worker, clergyman, police chaplain and is currently busily employed at being retired.