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The Coves
San Francisco, 1849: a place gripped by gold fever, swarming with desperate men come to seek their fortune. Among them are former convicts, Australians quick to seize control in a town without masters, a town for the taking. Into this world steps an Australian boy in search of his mother. Just twelve years old, and all alone in a time of opportunism, loyalty and violent betrayal, Samuel Bellamy must learn to become one of the Sydney Coves if he is to survive.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2018
3 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
David Whish-Wilson
23 books92 followersDavid Whish-Wilson is the author of eleven novels and three creative non-fiction books. He was born in Newcastle, NSW but raised in Singapore, Victoria and WA. He left Australia aged eighteen to live for a decade in Europe, Africa and Asia, where he worked as a barman, actor, streetseller, petty criminal, labourer, exterminator, factory worker, gardener, clerk, travel agent, teacher and drug trial guinea pig.
David is the author of four novels in the Frank Swann crime series and two in the Lee Southern series, two of which have been shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. David wrote the Perth book in the NewSouth Books city series, which was shortlisted for a WA Premier’s Book Award. His latest novel, Cutler, was shortlisted for a WA Premier's Book Award and the BAD Sydney Danger Award.
He currently lives in Fremantle, WA, with his partner and three kids, and teaches creative writing at Curtin University
David is the author of four novels in the Frank Swann crime series and two in the Lee Southern series, two of which have been shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. David wrote the Perth book in the NewSouth Books city series, which was shortlisted for a WA Premier’s Book Award. His latest novel, Cutler, was shortlisted for a WA Premier's Book Award and the BAD Sydney Danger Award.
He currently lives in Fremantle, WA, with his partner and three kids, and teaches creative writing at Curtin University
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 12, 2022
Sam Bellamy is twelve years old and yet he has survived the Boys home, watching his father killed, his mother flogged and transported to Van Diemen’s Land, and now a mutiny. He is on the trail of his mother, who was granted her ticket-of-leave after serving her sentence and is now supposedly in California.
The narrative opens with Sam on the whaler in which the mutiny has occurred. He is uncertain of his future. It is 1849 and the ringleader of the mutiny, Dempsey, intends to sail to California and cash in on the gold rush. With posters nailed on all the main streets of Sydney it seemed that every ship on the waves was heading there too. Everybody had the fever, a promise of riches and an easier life.
Unwittingly he has become a part of the Dempsey gang. Yet just upon arriving at San Francisco, Sam releases the crewman who has been tied to the wheel, forced to steer them safely to the coast. Dempsey knows this and Sam has made a powerful enemy. Dempsey –
“I know it was you that betrayed us. Let the raiders aboard. Freed the American. I advise against breaking your fast, for shortly I’ll be opening your guts”.
San Francisco is a melting pot of cultures. Men and woman flocking from all over the globe gripped with gold rush fever. There is an Australian contingent, and they are great in number. It is the leader of these men who saves Sam from Dempsey, ending Dempsey’s nascent career as a gold miner before it even begins. Sam falls under the aegis of Thomas Keane, who employs him as a scout and messenger. His job to sniff out the gold and listen for rumors.
The Australians have a good foothold but there is an American gang, The Hounds, deserters from the Mexican war, who want what the Australians have got, so the Australians are building an arsenal to defend themselves. The Australians are called, Sydney Ducks, or Sydney Coves and they routinely resort to bushranging and murder, witling down the numbers of their enemies.
Sam soon becomes trained and proficient in the ways of a pickpocket. And eventually ends up working odd jobs for Keane’s fellow cove Clement.
What surprised me about this novel and made me aware of my lack of historical knowledge, was the huge number of Australians who were part of the 1849 gold rush. It is estimated that in 1852 one quarter of San Francisco’s population was Australian. One neighborhood of the city being called Sydney-town. In the author’s note at the end of the book he comments that most of these Australians were criminals and were blamed for burning San Francisco to the ground five times. The fact that Sydney-town was always spared supporting this claim.
This is a wonderful historical novel about a young boy trying to find his mother. A herculean task, set against the backdrop of the 1849 San Francisco gold rush, peppered with historical characters and events. Most enjoyable.
The narrative opens with Sam on the whaler in which the mutiny has occurred. He is uncertain of his future. It is 1849 and the ringleader of the mutiny, Dempsey, intends to sail to California and cash in on the gold rush. With posters nailed on all the main streets of Sydney it seemed that every ship on the waves was heading there too. Everybody had the fever, a promise of riches and an easier life.
Unwittingly he has become a part of the Dempsey gang. Yet just upon arriving at San Francisco, Sam releases the crewman who has been tied to the wheel, forced to steer them safely to the coast. Dempsey knows this and Sam has made a powerful enemy. Dempsey –
“I know it was you that betrayed us. Let the raiders aboard. Freed the American. I advise against breaking your fast, for shortly I’ll be opening your guts”.
San Francisco is a melting pot of cultures. Men and woman flocking from all over the globe gripped with gold rush fever. There is an Australian contingent, and they are great in number. It is the leader of these men who saves Sam from Dempsey, ending Dempsey’s nascent career as a gold miner before it even begins. Sam falls under the aegis of Thomas Keane, who employs him as a scout and messenger. His job to sniff out the gold and listen for rumors.
The Australians have a good foothold but there is an American gang, The Hounds, deserters from the Mexican war, who want what the Australians have got, so the Australians are building an arsenal to defend themselves. The Australians are called, Sydney Ducks, or Sydney Coves and they routinely resort to bushranging and murder, witling down the numbers of their enemies.
Sam soon becomes trained and proficient in the ways of a pickpocket. And eventually ends up working odd jobs for Keane’s fellow cove Clement.
What surprised me about this novel and made me aware of my lack of historical knowledge, was the huge number of Australians who were part of the 1849 gold rush. It is estimated that in 1852 one quarter of San Francisco’s population was Australian. One neighborhood of the city being called Sydney-town. In the author’s note at the end of the book he comments that most of these Australians were criminals and were blamed for burning San Francisco to the ground five times. The fact that Sydney-town was always spared supporting this claim.
This is a wonderful historical novel about a young boy trying to find his mother. A herculean task, set against the backdrop of the 1849 San Francisco gold rush, peppered with historical characters and events. Most enjoyable.
December 1, 2018
Loved this take on San Francisco's Barbary Coast. It's a well-crafted coming of age story of a 12 year-old Australian boy who stows away to America in search for his mother, but it's more than that, it's a historically accurate depiction of life in San Francisco's earliest years. There's much to learn and, as a SF resident, I was fascinated to uncover so much about this under-explored era of California's history. As a novel, it's got all the right ingredients and was clearly painstakingly researched. Its language, too, reflects the time it describes. It reads like an authentic document of its day. Excellent stuff.
January 15, 2019
Confirms what I have thought about the author for the long time, that he is easily one of the most underrated crime writers working in Australia at the moment. YA meets hardboiled crime fiction, a marvellously evocative piece of storytelling, with a genuinely enthralling depiction of 1800s San Francisco. Recommended.
September 20, 2018
How on earth did such a tiny book take me so long to read?
I enjoyed it - it was a good story. But I wasn't dying to pick it up every second of the day. It has some really cool historical anecdotes, and overall I love the premise of the Australian gangs in San Francisco.
I enjoyed it - it was a good story. But I wasn't dying to pick it up every second of the day. It has some really cool historical anecdotes, and overall I love the premise of the Australian gangs in San Francisco.
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August 10, 2018Fans of David Whish-Wilson’s trilogy of crime novels featuring Frank Swann will recognise his superb storytelling style and elegant prose in this gripping new work of historical fiction that binds the Swan River colony to gold rush era California. San Francisco in 1850 is a frontier town – lawless, corrupt, full of competing gangs, ramshackle buildings, and gold fever. The rough-and-tumble life is vividly portrayed in the quarter called Sydney Cove, which is full of Australians. Into this milieu steps Sam Bellamy, a twelve-year-old in search of his prostitute mother. Keeping a lookout for this wily but sensitive (and vulnerable) boy in this threatening environment are two nefarious members of the Sydney Coves gang, Keane and Clement. Throughout the narrative, connections are established between life in the New World and Sam’s earlier life at the Swan River. This lively, engaging novel, which is based on historical events and characters, will appeal to a wide range of readers and offers many talking points for book clubs.
June 15, 2023
I managed to get about half way into this before I got that sickly sweet taste in my mouth that I associate with the sort of thick tea we used to get at half time in rugby matches, or a cheap pot of Lidl jam.
It’s main fault is that it can’t be both things, a dark and bloody piece of historical fiction punctuated by lashings, grisly murder and executions, and at the same time, a coming of age tale about a cute 12 year old boy with ginger curls and his adorable puppy.
Great authors can pull off pretty much anything though, but I feel that in this case Whish-Wilson has given himself just too difficult a task.
It’s main fault is that it can’t be both things, a dark and bloody piece of historical fiction punctuated by lashings, grisly murder and executions, and at the same time, a coming of age tale about a cute 12 year old boy with ginger curls and his adorable puppy.
Great authors can pull off pretty much anything though, but I feel that in this case Whish-Wilson has given himself just too difficult a task.
January 22, 2019
David Whish-Wilson is best known for his historical crime fiction set in Perth and surrounds, but The Coves takes us to 1849 San Francisco, gold fever and the Australian gangs who controlled the part of it known as Sydney-town. Newtown Review of Books
December 12, 2019
The Coves is a departure for David Whish-Wilson insofar as it is set in the 1850s and mainly in San Francisco, but all the hallmarks of this author's craft remain. Whish-Wilson produces crisp, detailed imagery in understated literary prose as he brings the early days of SF to life through the eyes of his 12-year-old protagonist, Sam Bellamy. Escaping an unhappy childhood in Australia and searching for his long-gone mother, Sam finds himself in trouble from the get-go. The ship he is travelling to America aboard falls into the hands of mutineers and Sam finds himself in an uneasy alliance with an unwilling 'molly', Sarah Proctor. These early chapters are tremendously exciting and filled with hot-blooded action. The rest of the narrative builds to a second crescendo that proves just as brutal as the first. The Coves is mainly things - historical fiction, coming of age story, crime narrative - and it weaves these genre threads together expertly. It's a cracking read and one not to be missed.
July 6, 2019
I found this a little difficult to read, and the speech written phonetically in some cases really didn't help. Sadly, the characters seemed very two dimensional, and just when you thought you had a handle on their motivations, they disappeared. The plot twists were a little telegraphed, and the climax was fast paced, but also over very quickly. There was a tiny resolution, and I enjoyed the author's note.
July 27, 2019
I didn't know the Australian history of San Francisco.
February 20, 2022
I spent 40 minutes reviewing this fine novel only for this app to take me to another page and completely lose everything I'd written. I'll try again at some stage, but what's going on here?
February 2, 2021
The Coves, picked up at random as the library was shutting its doors. The plot is about a piece of Australian history I knew nothing about.... men (mostly) who fled/escaped from Sydney penal colony, to San Francisco at the start of the goldrush there. ( another reviewer referred to it as SanFran history, I guess it is both!) A short book, but the characters are well drawn, the dread and threats compelling, the stink and much came at me off the page.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews