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The Fossil Hunter
Buried secrets. An ancient fossil. And one woman's determination to unravel a nineteenth-century mystery.
Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush with a monster at her heels—but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist who is convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that covered her property millions of years ago. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream.
Australia, 1919. Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I intent on making peace with her father and commemorating the deaths of her two younger brothers in the trenches. Her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History Museum and her brothers' favorite camping spot. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, several girls disappeared from the area. When PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, she's determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago...and perhaps some closure on the loss of her brothers.
Weaving together these two timelines, The Fossil Hunter offers everything you love: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and startling discoveries that will keep the pages turning.
Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush with a monster at her heels—but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist who is convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that covered her property millions of years ago. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream.
Australia, 1919. Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I intent on making peace with her father and commemorating the deaths of her two younger brothers in the trenches. Her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History Museum and her brothers' favorite camping spot. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, several girls disappeared from the area. When PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, she's determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago...and perhaps some closure on the loss of her brothers.
Weaving together these two timelines, The Fossil Hunter offers everything you love: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and startling discoveries that will keep the pages turning.
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 2021
116 people are currently reading
4933 people want to read
About the author
Tea Cooper
28 books948 followersTea Cooper writes Australian contemporary and historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
October 23, 2021
It was 1847 in Wollombi, in the Hunter Valley, Australia and twelve-year-old Mellie Vale was in the grips of a fever. She had chicken pox and was very sick, but when she began to improve, she had to put up with the jeers and taunts of the two sisters where she was staying. Mellie just wanted her da but no one would say where he was. Every year the children visited Anthea Winstanley at Bow Wow Gorge and this year, Mellie went along as well. Anthea took Mellie under her wing as she could see the child was traumatized by something – she could see the cruel teasing was getting under Mellie’s skin, but was it more than that?
It was 1919 and the war was over. Penelope Jane Martindale was in London waiting for her good friend Sam, an American from Philadelphia, to arrive with Sid, his Wolseley which had been converted to an ambulance during the war. When Sam and Sid arrived, they would head for Australia. PJ’s time was filled with visits to London’s Natural History Museum where she found a fossil accredited to Anthea Winstanley of Australia. She remembered her younger brothers’ crate of fossils and their interest in searching for fossils when they’d been boys. Could it all be connected somehow?
PJ’s return to Wollombi with Sam was the beginning of a deep fascination for her of the local area, the fossils and what remained at Bow Wow Gorge. Her pa was angry with her, and she needed to right that situation, but it was while learning about the talk from locals about missing people from seventy years prior and hauntings by a bunyip had PJ wondered what secrets were there to be unearthed…
The Fossil Hunter is another fascinating look at New South Wales history, mostly fictional, by Aussie author Tea Cooper and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found both timeframes equally enthralling, and although I don’t know Bow Wow Gorge, it does exist. I’ve been to Wollombi and it’s a lovely little town and I can imagine it back in the days of The Fossil Hunter. I have no hesitation in recommending this novel, along with all Ms Cooper’s historical stories.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review
It was 1919 and the war was over. Penelope Jane Martindale was in London waiting for her good friend Sam, an American from Philadelphia, to arrive with Sid, his Wolseley which had been converted to an ambulance during the war. When Sam and Sid arrived, they would head for Australia. PJ’s time was filled with visits to London’s Natural History Museum where she found a fossil accredited to Anthea Winstanley of Australia. She remembered her younger brothers’ crate of fossils and their interest in searching for fossils when they’d been boys. Could it all be connected somehow?
PJ’s return to Wollombi with Sam was the beginning of a deep fascination for her of the local area, the fossils and what remained at Bow Wow Gorge. Her pa was angry with her, and she needed to right that situation, but it was while learning about the talk from locals about missing people from seventy years prior and hauntings by a bunyip had PJ wondered what secrets were there to be unearthed…
The Fossil Hunter is another fascinating look at New South Wales history, mostly fictional, by Aussie author Tea Cooper and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found both timeframes equally enthralling, and although I don’t know Bow Wow Gorge, it does exist. I’ve been to Wollombi and it’s a lovely little town and I can imagine it back in the days of The Fossil Hunter. I have no hesitation in recommending this novel, along with all Ms Cooper’s historical stories.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review
October 27, 2021
I was more than a little surprised to see that this is the first book I have read by this author! It will not be the last.
The Fossil Hunter is set in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and has dual time lines, both of them historical. The story revolves around Mellie in 1847 and PJ in 1919. Fossils and fossil hunting are the focal point of the book and there is a lot of historical fact included about palaeontology and the discovery of dinosaur bones in particular.
I really enjoyed the Australian setting. How lucky were PJ and Sam to be able to stroll down to a creek at dawn and see a platypus. I am not sure how easy that would be today. I have seen them in captivity though and they are marvellous. The fossils are still being found today of course including dinosaur bones and footprints.
Not all the bones discovered in the book are fossils and there is an intriguing mystery regarding some human bones. It was not hard to guess who they must belong to but the reasons why and how they came to be there lead to a great story. It was all very enjoyable and informative.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
The Fossil Hunter is set in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and has dual time lines, both of them historical. The story revolves around Mellie in 1847 and PJ in 1919. Fossils and fossil hunting are the focal point of the book and there is a lot of historical fact included about palaeontology and the discovery of dinosaur bones in particular.
I really enjoyed the Australian setting. How lucky were PJ and Sam to be able to stroll down to a creek at dawn and see a platypus. I am not sure how easy that would be today. I have seen them in captivity though and they are marvellous. The fossils are still being found today of course including dinosaur bones and footprints.
Not all the bones discovered in the book are fossils and there is an intriguing mystery regarding some human bones. It was not hard to guess who they must belong to but the reasons why and how they came to be there lead to a great story. It was all very enjoyable and informative.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
October 28, 2021
Mellie Vale, lives in Wollombi, with her father and he mixes with some rough characters. With a high fever, Mellie remembers running through the Australian bush, with a bunyip chasing her, and everyone thinks she has an overactive imagination. Bunyips are mystical creatures that live in the bush and near lagoons, they make a roaring noise and Aboriginal people believe they exist. The Pearson family give her a place to stay, she has no idea what happened to her dad, and their two daughters Lydia and Bea, bully Mellie.
When Lydia and Bea, Ella and Grace Ketteringham, and Millie are given and oppituinty to stay with Anthea Winstanley, a family friend of the Pearson's, Mellie’s nervous, and Anthea's an amateur paleontologist. Anthea’s interested in fossils, and convinced she will find proof of the ancient sea dragons, and the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur. The Hunter Valley was once a vast in land sea, full of prehistorical marine life, with the right conditions they eventually turned into fossils, and Anthea’s property at Bow Bow Gorge is the ideal location.
Penelope Jane Martindale is an Australian ambulance driver, she served in France during WW I, and she’s waiting for a ship to taker her home and she visits the Natural History museum in London. Her brothers Dan and Riley died in the war, as young boys they collected fossils and Penelope also finds them interesting. She travels to Lyme Regis, to visit the graves of three famous women paleontologists and speaks to a Mr. Wood.
Returning to Australia with her fiancé Samuel Groves, her father isn’t happy to see her and he blames her for her brother’s deaths. Penelope discovers a connection between a fossil at the museum in London, her brother’s fossil collections and where they were found. Determined to discover the truth she travels to Bow Wow Gorge, locals don’t like talking about the place, it has a sinister past, and she meets two influential women Dr. Mavis Elliot and Ms. Amelia Baldwin.
The Fossil Hunter is a dual timeline historical mystery, set in 1847 and 1919, its full of scientific information, interesting characters, long kept secrets, startling discoveries, and complicated family relationships. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin Australia in exchange for an honest review, Tea Cooper at her very best, I highly recommend reading this book, and five stars from me. https://karrenreadsbooks.blogspot.com/
When Lydia and Bea, Ella and Grace Ketteringham, and Millie are given and oppituinty to stay with Anthea Winstanley, a family friend of the Pearson's, Mellie’s nervous, and Anthea's an amateur paleontologist. Anthea’s interested in fossils, and convinced she will find proof of the ancient sea dragons, and the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur. The Hunter Valley was once a vast in land sea, full of prehistorical marine life, with the right conditions they eventually turned into fossils, and Anthea’s property at Bow Bow Gorge is the ideal location.
Penelope Jane Martindale is an Australian ambulance driver, she served in France during WW I, and she’s waiting for a ship to taker her home and she visits the Natural History museum in London. Her brothers Dan and Riley died in the war, as young boys they collected fossils and Penelope also finds them interesting. She travels to Lyme Regis, to visit the graves of three famous women paleontologists and speaks to a Mr. Wood.
Returning to Australia with her fiancé Samuel Groves, her father isn’t happy to see her and he blames her for her brother’s deaths. Penelope discovers a connection between a fossil at the museum in London, her brother’s fossil collections and where they were found. Determined to discover the truth she travels to Bow Wow Gorge, locals don’t like talking about the place, it has a sinister past, and she meets two influential women Dr. Mavis Elliot and Ms. Amelia Baldwin.
The Fossil Hunter is a dual timeline historical mystery, set in 1847 and 1919, its full of scientific information, interesting characters, long kept secrets, startling discoveries, and complicated family relationships. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin Australia in exchange for an honest review, Tea Cooper at her very best, I highly recommend reading this book, and five stars from me. https://karrenreadsbooks.blogspot.com/
October 15, 2022
The Fossil Hunter is an absorbing read, effectively using dual timelines to explore the lives of women and the emerging study of Australian fossils in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Interwoven into the plot is a 70-year-old mystery, linking the novel's 1847 storyline with its 1919 present.
The story opens in early 1847 with Mellie, an unhappy and traumatised young girl, recovering from a nasty case of chickenpox as well as a terrifying incident in the bush, and the unexplained absence of her father. Mellie's been taken in by the family of Dr. Pearson in the Hunter Valley (NSW) town of Wollombi, but is unsympathetically bullied by the domestic staff and the daughters of the house.
Every year, the Pearson daughters Lydia and Bea and their local friends, Ella and Grace Ketteringham, look forward to spending ten days with widowed "Aunt" Anthea Winstanley at her bushland property, Bow Wow. Hoping to aid Mellie's convalescence with a change of scenery, Mrs. Pearson decides to send a nervous and reluctant Mellie to accompany the other girls. For Mellie, this proves a revelation, as she quickly forms a bond with Anthea and develops a fascination with the fossils she excavates from the gorge located on her property.
Anthea has recently discovered an unusual fossil, which she thinks may be the vertebrae of an ichthyosaur - an ancient marine reptile, fossils of which have been discovered previously in other parts of the world, notably by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, England.
As Anthea waits hopefully for professional advice on the fossil, she leads the group of girls in delicate excavation work and careful cataloguing of their finds. But life at Bow Wow is far from idyllic - Bea and Grace are relentless in their teasing of Mellie, while the older girls, Lydia and Ella, are more concerned with their looming search for husbands than the "unladylike" work of collecting fossils. Anthea's irritation turns to alarm, however, when a mysterious stranger arrives at Bow Wow, expressing an interest in purchasing part of the property.
In 1919, the Great War having finally drawn to a close, Australian Ambulance Volunteer Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale is kicking her heels in London, awaiting the arrival of her close friend and colleague, American Captain Sam Groves, who is delayed in returning from the continent with his converted Wolseley ambulance, referred to as "Sid".
She visits the Natural History Museum, and is fascinated to view fossils catalogued as having been discovered by an "A. Winstanley" at Bow Wow Gorge, New South Wales. The fossils capture her imagination, as her younger brothers - both of whom died during the war, like so many young men - had been interested in collecting fossils, and had often visited Bow Wow, not far from the family home in Wollombi. PJ dreams of honouring her brothers' memory by bringing their ambition to fruition - uncover a full Australian ichthyosaur fossil and name it Ichthyosaurus martindalii.
Her arrival back in Australia with Sam - who has by this time proposed - is not as welcoming as she'd hoped - her doctor father blames her personally for the enlistment and subsequent deaths of her brothers.
Keen to escape the awkwardness of the family home - the same house in which the Pearson family lived 70 years previously - PJ and Sam set out to explore Bow Wow Gorge. They're initially looking for fossils, but unwittingly come across skeletonised human remains in a cave off the gorge. Their discovery prompts a series of meetings with local personalities and revelations about the history of Bow Wow Gorge. What happened at the gorge seventy years ago and whose are the remains that have been hidden for so long?
Like author Tea Cooper, I was fortunate to visit the town of Lyme Regis in the UK at an inquisitive young age, and was also fascinated with the story of Mary Anning and others who pioneered the field of palaeontology, despite the social, academic and physical barriers they faced as women. While the plot and central characters of The Fossil Hunter are fictionalised, the inclusion of a visit by PJ to the Museum at Lyme Regis draws some real historical content into the book - that said, parts of the narrative don't fit the real historical timeline, as the real Anning died from breast cancer in March 1847, contemporaneously with the story's Anthea and girls searching for fossils at Bow Wow.
Tea Cooper's creation of an evocative setting is masterful - I wasn't surprised to read that she'd spent time in both Wollombi and at Bow Wow (a modern farmhouse now stands on the site she describes as Anthea's home) while researching for the book.
The setting is simultaneously beautiful and somewhat menacing, calling to mind Australian classics such as Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock - an impression solidified by PJ's imagining of young women clad in muslin dresses posing against a geological backdrop.
Given the strange sounds and light of the bush, it's not surprising that Australian indigenous people and colonial settlers imagined the existence of terrifying bush-swamp monsters, referred to as bunyips, quinkins or yowies, (the now common term bunyip has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia language of the indigenous groups based in present Victoria).
Tea Cooper incorporates into her narrative a curious incident around the purported discovery of a bunyip skull, and its temporary display in Sydney, which actually occurred in 1847.
The Fossil Hunter is a thought-provoking and entertaining read, with well-developed characters and an evocative setting in rural-bush Australia. Tea Cooper has created convincing storylines in not one, but two distinct historical periods, subtly exploring the limitations that applied to the rights and opportunities of women in both timeframes. I was fascinated with Cooper's integration of the real-life inspirations for the "Doctor's House" at Wollombi and the Bow Wow homestead and gorge. The mystery storyline is intriguing, with the reader given insight ahead of the characters as to where the truth lies.
I'd highly recommend The Fossil Hunter to readers who enjoy well-researched historical fiction, especially stories about women's experiences and Australian settings. Any reader who, like myself, has a personal interest in the story of Mary Anning and other pioneering women of science will find this a stimulating read.
My thanks to the author, Tea Cooper, publisher Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to its release on 27 October 2021.
The story opens in early 1847 with Mellie, an unhappy and traumatised young girl, recovering from a nasty case of chickenpox as well as a terrifying incident in the bush, and the unexplained absence of her father. Mellie's been taken in by the family of Dr. Pearson in the Hunter Valley (NSW) town of Wollombi, but is unsympathetically bullied by the domestic staff and the daughters of the house.
Every year, the Pearson daughters Lydia and Bea and their local friends, Ella and Grace Ketteringham, look forward to spending ten days with widowed "Aunt" Anthea Winstanley at her bushland property, Bow Wow. Hoping to aid Mellie's convalescence with a change of scenery, Mrs. Pearson decides to send a nervous and reluctant Mellie to accompany the other girls. For Mellie, this proves a revelation, as she quickly forms a bond with Anthea and develops a fascination with the fossils she excavates from the gorge located on her property.
Anthea has recently discovered an unusual fossil, which she thinks may be the vertebrae of an ichthyosaur - an ancient marine reptile, fossils of which have been discovered previously in other parts of the world, notably by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, England.
As Anthea waits hopefully for professional advice on the fossil, she leads the group of girls in delicate excavation work and careful cataloguing of their finds. But life at Bow Wow is far from idyllic - Bea and Grace are relentless in their teasing of Mellie, while the older girls, Lydia and Ella, are more concerned with their looming search for husbands than the "unladylike" work of collecting fossils. Anthea's irritation turns to alarm, however, when a mysterious stranger arrives at Bow Wow, expressing an interest in purchasing part of the property.
In 1919, the Great War having finally drawn to a close, Australian Ambulance Volunteer Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale is kicking her heels in London, awaiting the arrival of her close friend and colleague, American Captain Sam Groves, who is delayed in returning from the continent with his converted Wolseley ambulance, referred to as "Sid".
She visits the Natural History Museum, and is fascinated to view fossils catalogued as having been discovered by an "A. Winstanley" at Bow Wow Gorge, New South Wales. The fossils capture her imagination, as her younger brothers - both of whom died during the war, like so many young men - had been interested in collecting fossils, and had often visited Bow Wow, not far from the family home in Wollombi. PJ dreams of honouring her brothers' memory by bringing their ambition to fruition - uncover a full Australian ichthyosaur fossil and name it Ichthyosaurus martindalii.
Her arrival back in Australia with Sam - who has by this time proposed - is not as welcoming as she'd hoped - her doctor father blames her personally for the enlistment and subsequent deaths of her brothers.
Keen to escape the awkwardness of the family home - the same house in which the Pearson family lived 70 years previously - PJ and Sam set out to explore Bow Wow Gorge. They're initially looking for fossils, but unwittingly come across skeletonised human remains in a cave off the gorge. Their discovery prompts a series of meetings with local personalities and revelations about the history of Bow Wow Gorge. What happened at the gorge seventy years ago and whose are the remains that have been hidden for so long?
Like author Tea Cooper, I was fortunate to visit the town of Lyme Regis in the UK at an inquisitive young age, and was also fascinated with the story of Mary Anning and others who pioneered the field of palaeontology, despite the social, academic and physical barriers they faced as women. While the plot and central characters of The Fossil Hunter are fictionalised, the inclusion of a visit by PJ to the Museum at Lyme Regis draws some real historical content into the book - that said, parts of the narrative don't fit the real historical timeline, as the real Anning died from breast cancer in March 1847, contemporaneously with the story's Anthea and girls searching for fossils at Bow Wow.
Tea Cooper's creation of an evocative setting is masterful - I wasn't surprised to read that she'd spent time in both Wollombi and at Bow Wow (a modern farmhouse now stands on the site she describes as Anthea's home) while researching for the book.
The setting is simultaneously beautiful and somewhat menacing, calling to mind Australian classics such as Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock - an impression solidified by PJ's imagining of young women clad in muslin dresses posing against a geological backdrop.
Given the strange sounds and light of the bush, it's not surprising that Australian indigenous people and colonial settlers imagined the existence of terrifying bush-swamp monsters, referred to as bunyips, quinkins or yowies, (the now common term bunyip has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia language of the indigenous groups based in present Victoria).
Tea Cooper incorporates into her narrative a curious incident around the purported discovery of a bunyip skull, and its temporary display in Sydney, which actually occurred in 1847.
The Fossil Hunter is a thought-provoking and entertaining read, with well-developed characters and an evocative setting in rural-bush Australia. Tea Cooper has created convincing storylines in not one, but two distinct historical periods, subtly exploring the limitations that applied to the rights and opportunities of women in both timeframes. I was fascinated with Cooper's integration of the real-life inspirations for the "Doctor's House" at Wollombi and the Bow Wow homestead and gorge. The mystery storyline is intriguing, with the reader given insight ahead of the characters as to where the truth lies.
I'd highly recommend The Fossil Hunter to readers who enjoy well-researched historical fiction, especially stories about women's experiences and Australian settings. Any reader who, like myself, has a personal interest in the story of Mary Anning and other pioneering women of science will find this a stimulating read.
My thanks to the author, Tea Cooper, publisher Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to its release on 27 October 2021.
October 23, 2021
Again MS Cooper has dug deep into research and given her readers a fabulous story set in duel timelines around The Hunter Valley, this time we discover fossils and the wonderful people who spend their lives searching for the past in some very interesting places and make such wonderful discoveries, do come along and meet the fabulous characters and enjoy their stories as much as I did.
It is 1919 and Penelope Jane (PJ) Martindale is spending some time at London’s Natural History Museum, before she travels home to Australia when she discovers a fossil found at Bow Wow Gorge in The Hunter Valley, a place she knows her young brothers would go there searching for fossils, sadly her brothers will not be coming home from France, but PJ has a bee in her bonnet now and can’t wait to get back home and do a bit of searching herself never realising what she will uncover from seventy years before.
Wollombi Hunter Valley 1847 a young Mellie Vale is about to have her life turned upside down by matters that had nothing to do with her, she is scared and very ill, but when she wakes from her fever her Pa is gone and she is living at the Doctor’s house, the Doctor’s wife sends her along to visit a friend, an amateur palaeontologilst, Anthea Winstanley with her daughters and a couple of other young girls for ten days of what should be fun and to help Mellie heal.
Mellie is soon helping Anthea to find these sea dragons and learning as she goes in the beautiful Bow Wow Gorge, she and Anthea are very close but things turn around when a stranger visits and trouble is brewing, life changes very quickly.
PJ arrives back in the Hunter Valley from the battlefields of France she hopes to talk to her father about her brothers, she is also accompanied by Sam who is American, the man who wants to marry her they drove ambulances together on the front line things don’t go as planned when she arrives home and her and Sam find themselves searching for fossils in the Bow Wow Gorge but when they find human bones the search depends and they find they are uncovering secrets from seventy years ago.
I truly loved this story it is so well written, the characters are easy to get to know and there were many twists for me as the truths come out about what had happened all those years ago at Bow Wow house and gorge. I do highly recommend this one a must read, Tea Cooper has never disappointed me with one of her stories another page turner and one for the keeper shelf.
My thanks to Harlequin AU for my copy to read and review and Netgalley.
It is 1919 and Penelope Jane (PJ) Martindale is spending some time at London’s Natural History Museum, before she travels home to Australia when she discovers a fossil found at Bow Wow Gorge in The Hunter Valley, a place she knows her young brothers would go there searching for fossils, sadly her brothers will not be coming home from France, but PJ has a bee in her bonnet now and can’t wait to get back home and do a bit of searching herself never realising what she will uncover from seventy years before.
Wollombi Hunter Valley 1847 a young Mellie Vale is about to have her life turned upside down by matters that had nothing to do with her, she is scared and very ill, but when she wakes from her fever her Pa is gone and she is living at the Doctor’s house, the Doctor’s wife sends her along to visit a friend, an amateur palaeontologilst, Anthea Winstanley with her daughters and a couple of other young girls for ten days of what should be fun and to help Mellie heal.
Mellie is soon helping Anthea to find these sea dragons and learning as she goes in the beautiful Bow Wow Gorge, she and Anthea are very close but things turn around when a stranger visits and trouble is brewing, life changes very quickly.
PJ arrives back in the Hunter Valley from the battlefields of France she hopes to talk to her father about her brothers, she is also accompanied by Sam who is American, the man who wants to marry her they drove ambulances together on the front line things don’t go as planned when she arrives home and her and Sam find themselves searching for fossils in the Bow Wow Gorge but when they find human bones the search depends and they find they are uncovering secrets from seventy years ago.
I truly loved this story it is so well written, the characters are easy to get to know and there were many twists for me as the truths come out about what had happened all those years ago at Bow Wow house and gorge. I do highly recommend this one a must read, Tea Cooper has never disappointed me with one of her stories another page turner and one for the keeper shelf.
My thanks to Harlequin AU for my copy to read and review and Netgalley.
October 27, 2021
⭐️4.5 Stars⭐️
✨Tea Cooper has given us yet another brilliant story blending historical fiction with mystery. We have a theme of palaeontology, bunyips and murder in the Australian bush in this intriguing dual timeline piece, The Fossil Hunter.
✨Mellie Vale, twelve years of age lives in Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, Australia with her father and it’s the year 1847. Mellie’s mother and baby brother are deceased and her father now associates with some shady characters. The last thing Mellie remembers before the fever got her was running through the bush, footsteps following behind her….a monster!
✨Mellie is taken in by Dr. Pearson and his family to recover, she is not told where her father is. She’s later sent on a visit to their family friend Anthea Winstanely who lives st Bow Wow. Anthea is a palaeontologist and Mellie becomes fasinated in searching for fossils with her and looking for proof of existance of the prehistoric great sea-dragons in Australia.
✨London 1919 - Penelope Jane Martindale (PJ) has served as an ambulance driver on the battlefields of France during the war. Now that the war has ended she is on her way back home to Australia and has stopped to visit London’s Natural History Museum. Here PJ discovers a fossil found at Bow Wow Gorge in The Hunter Valley, near her home and where her deceased brothers used to go searching for the fossils they would bring home.
✨PJ and her American boyfriend Sam explore the gorge for fossils once back in Australia and make some shocking discoveries. Bow Wow Gorge has a dark history, the locals believe girls disappeared there some seventy years ago.
I’ve always loved everything I’ve read by Tea Cooper and this was no exception.
Publication date 27 October 2021
Thank you so much Harlequin Books Australia for sending me a copy of the book
✨Tea Cooper has given us yet another brilliant story blending historical fiction with mystery. We have a theme of palaeontology, bunyips and murder in the Australian bush in this intriguing dual timeline piece, The Fossil Hunter.
✨Mellie Vale, twelve years of age lives in Wollombi in the Hunter Valley, Australia with her father and it’s the year 1847. Mellie’s mother and baby brother are deceased and her father now associates with some shady characters. The last thing Mellie remembers before the fever got her was running through the bush, footsteps following behind her….a monster!
✨Mellie is taken in by Dr. Pearson and his family to recover, she is not told where her father is. She’s later sent on a visit to their family friend Anthea Winstanely who lives st Bow Wow. Anthea is a palaeontologist and Mellie becomes fasinated in searching for fossils with her and looking for proof of existance of the prehistoric great sea-dragons in Australia.
✨London 1919 - Penelope Jane Martindale (PJ) has served as an ambulance driver on the battlefields of France during the war. Now that the war has ended she is on her way back home to Australia and has stopped to visit London’s Natural History Museum. Here PJ discovers a fossil found at Bow Wow Gorge in The Hunter Valley, near her home and where her deceased brothers used to go searching for the fossils they would bring home.
✨PJ and her American boyfriend Sam explore the gorge for fossils once back in Australia and make some shocking discoveries. Bow Wow Gorge has a dark history, the locals believe girls disappeared there some seventy years ago.
I’ve always loved everything I’ve read by Tea Cooper and this was no exception.
Publication date 27 October 2021
Thank you so much Harlequin Books Australia for sending me a copy of the book
December 13, 2021
Another excellent historical novel by Tea Cooper, fast becoming a writer I can be certain of an entertaining read. This one is set in the Hunter Valley, concerned mostly with the brilliantly named Bow Wow Gorge (a real place!) but also set in Wollombi and Kurri Kurri. It starts in alternate timelines; The first is 1847 when a group of young girls visit Anthea Winstanley, a paleontologist, interested in the fossils at Bow Wow Gorge and the second is 1919, which opens in London at the museum where Australian, PJ (Penelope Jane) finds a fossil labelled Bow Wow Gorge. As she’s from nearby Wollombi, and as she knows her brothers had visited the gorge, when she returns to Australia with fellow ambulance driver Sam, she’s interested in following up her brothers discoveries. What follows is an enjoyable mystery, with interesting characters, particularly strong females and an enjoyable read.
November 22, 2021
This is the first book that I have read by Tea Cooper and I am already looking forward to reading more. '
This story is told in parallel timelines, moving between the late 1840's and 1919. The majority of the story is set in the Hunter Valley in regional New South Wales.
PJ (short for Penelope Jane) is returning from service in the war as an ambulance officer to see her father. During the war her twin brothers were killed in France, having enlisted while underage. This appears to be something for which her father holds her to account.
While still in England PJ comes across a fossil in a London museum that appears to come from close to her home. This awakens in her a thirst for more knowledge about the fossils and the lady who found them, Mrs Anthea Winstanley.
As PJ with her friend, American Sam, who served with her as an ambulance officer, travels home to Australia she awakens local mythology about ghosts and bunyips.
Happy to recommend this wonderful piece of historical fiction. Thank you Netgalley, Harlequin Australia and HQ & MIRA for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.
This story is told in parallel timelines, moving between the late 1840's and 1919. The majority of the story is set in the Hunter Valley in regional New South Wales.
PJ (short for Penelope Jane) is returning from service in the war as an ambulance officer to see her father. During the war her twin brothers were killed in France, having enlisted while underage. This appears to be something for which her father holds her to account.
While still in England PJ comes across a fossil in a London museum that appears to come from close to her home. This awakens in her a thirst for more knowledge about the fossils and the lady who found them, Mrs Anthea Winstanley.
As PJ with her friend, American Sam, who served with her as an ambulance officer, travels home to Australia she awakens local mythology about ghosts and bunyips.
Happy to recommend this wonderful piece of historical fiction. Thank you Netgalley, Harlequin Australia and HQ & MIRA for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.
October 27, 2021
4.5★s
The Fossil Hunter is a historical novel by Australian author, Teà Cooper. In early 1847, twelve-year-old Mellie Vale is sure her short life is at its lowest point: her mother and baby brother have drowned; her father has left and not returned; and her home and her meagre possessions have been destroyed in a fire to contain the chicken pox she had contracted.
Dr Pearson’s family took her in, but she is mercilessly bullied by his staff, one of his daughters, and their friends. When the girls travel to Bow Wow Gorge to stay with Edna Pearson’s good friend and renowned palaeontologist, Anthea Winstanley, Mellie is wary. But she is soon won over by this rather strange woman’s excitement about the possible discovery of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur: the picture she shows them is clearly of a dragon, and Mellie would love to be a dragon hunter.
In 1919, as Penelope Jane Martindale waits for Captain Samuel Groves to arrive in London, she heads into the Natural History Museum, the very last place she saw her twin brothers, Dan and Riley, before they were killed in the war. Recalling their enthusiasm for fossils, she wanders into that section only to happen upon fossils from right near her home in Wollombi, NSW, which were found by a woman! Immediately fascinated, she decides to investigate further, as a sort of tribute to her brothers.
When PJ and Sam arrive in Wollombi with their war ambulance, locals are very closed-mouthed about Bow Wow Gorge, the actual location that her brothers went looking. When they eventually get to Bow Wow, they find a boarded-up house and some outbuildings. The Gorge has, PJ tells Sam, a haunted feel. Their search for fossils is almost fruitless; the piece they bring home is not at all what they first believe, and exposes what could well be a murder mystery.
This dual timeline story is told by Mellie and Anthea in the mid-nineteenth Century, and by PJ in the early twentieth Century. The depth of Cooper’s research is apparent on every page and her descriptive prose is very evocative: the sights, sounds and smells of the Australian bush are particularly well-rendered. The element of mystery will keep the reader enthralled through to the final pages of this superb Australian historical fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.
The Fossil Hunter is a historical novel by Australian author, Teà Cooper. In early 1847, twelve-year-old Mellie Vale is sure her short life is at its lowest point: her mother and baby brother have drowned; her father has left and not returned; and her home and her meagre possessions have been destroyed in a fire to contain the chicken pox she had contracted.
Dr Pearson’s family took her in, but she is mercilessly bullied by his staff, one of his daughters, and their friends. When the girls travel to Bow Wow Gorge to stay with Edna Pearson’s good friend and renowned palaeontologist, Anthea Winstanley, Mellie is wary. But she is soon won over by this rather strange woman’s excitement about the possible discovery of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur: the picture she shows them is clearly of a dragon, and Mellie would love to be a dragon hunter.
In 1919, as Penelope Jane Martindale waits for Captain Samuel Groves to arrive in London, she heads into the Natural History Museum, the very last place she saw her twin brothers, Dan and Riley, before they were killed in the war. Recalling their enthusiasm for fossils, she wanders into that section only to happen upon fossils from right near her home in Wollombi, NSW, which were found by a woman! Immediately fascinated, she decides to investigate further, as a sort of tribute to her brothers.
When PJ and Sam arrive in Wollombi with their war ambulance, locals are very closed-mouthed about Bow Wow Gorge, the actual location that her brothers went looking. When they eventually get to Bow Wow, they find a boarded-up house and some outbuildings. The Gorge has, PJ tells Sam, a haunted feel. Their search for fossils is almost fruitless; the piece they bring home is not at all what they first believe, and exposes what could well be a murder mystery.
This dual timeline story is told by Mellie and Anthea in the mid-nineteenth Century, and by PJ in the early twentieth Century. The depth of Cooper’s research is apparent on every page and her descriptive prose is very evocative: the sights, sounds and smells of the Australian bush are particularly well-rendered. The element of mystery will keep the reader enthralled through to the final pages of this superb Australian historical fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.
November 12, 2021
The Fossil Hunter is a historical novel by Australian author, Teà Cooper. The audio version is narrated by Sophie Loughran. In early 1847, twelve-year-old Mellie Vale is sure her short life is at its lowest point: her mother and baby brother have drowned; her father has left and not returned; and her home and her meagre possessions have been destroyed in a fire to contain the chicken pox she had contracted.
Dr Pearson’s family took her in, but she is mercilessly bullied by his staff, one of his daughters, and their friends. When the girls travel to Bow Wow Gorge to stay with Edna Pearson’s good friend and renowned palaeontologist, Anthea Winstanley, Mellie is wary. But she is soon won over by this rather strange woman’s excitement about the possible discovery of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur: the picture she shows them is clearly of a dragon, and Mellie would love to be a dragon hunter.
In 1919, as Penelope Jane Martindale waits for Captain Samuel Groves to arrive in London, she heads into the Natural History Museum, the very last place she saw her twin brothers, Dan and Riley, before they were killed in the war. Recalling their enthusiasm for fossils, she wanders into that section only to happen upon fossils from right near her home in Wollombi, NSW, which were found by a woman! Immediately fascinated, she decides to investigate further, as a sort of tribute to her brothers.
When PJ and Sam arrive in Wollombi with their war ambulance, locals are very closed-mouthed about Bow Wow Gorge, the actual location that her brothers went looking. When they eventually get to Bow Wow, they find a boarded-up house and some outbuildings. The Gorge has, PJ tells Sam, a haunted feel. Their search for fossils is almost fruitless; the piece they bring home is not at all what they first believe, and exposes what could well be a murder mystery.
This dual timeline story is told by Mellie and Anthea in the mid-nineteenth Century, and by PJ in the early twentieth Century. The depth of Cooper’s research is apparent on every page and her descriptive prose is very evocative: the sights, sounds and smells of the Australian bush are particularly well-rendered. The element of mystery will keep the reader enthralled through to the final pages of this superb Australian historical fiction.
Dr Pearson’s family took her in, but she is mercilessly bullied by his staff, one of his daughters, and their friends. When the girls travel to Bow Wow Gorge to stay with Edna Pearson’s good friend and renowned palaeontologist, Anthea Winstanley, Mellie is wary. But she is soon won over by this rather strange woman’s excitement about the possible discovery of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur: the picture she shows them is clearly of a dragon, and Mellie would love to be a dragon hunter.
In 1919, as Penelope Jane Martindale waits for Captain Samuel Groves to arrive in London, she heads into the Natural History Museum, the very last place she saw her twin brothers, Dan and Riley, before they were killed in the war. Recalling their enthusiasm for fossils, she wanders into that section only to happen upon fossils from right near her home in Wollombi, NSW, which were found by a woman! Immediately fascinated, she decides to investigate further, as a sort of tribute to her brothers.
When PJ and Sam arrive in Wollombi with their war ambulance, locals are very closed-mouthed about Bow Wow Gorge, the actual location that her brothers went looking. When they eventually get to Bow Wow, they find a boarded-up house and some outbuildings. The Gorge has, PJ tells Sam, a haunted feel. Their search for fossils is almost fruitless; the piece they bring home is not at all what they first believe, and exposes what could well be a murder mystery.
This dual timeline story is told by Mellie and Anthea in the mid-nineteenth Century, and by PJ in the early twentieth Century. The depth of Cooper’s research is apparent on every page and her descriptive prose is very evocative: the sights, sounds and smells of the Australian bush are particularly well-rendered. The element of mystery will keep the reader enthralled through to the final pages of this superb Australian historical fiction.
June 28, 2022
The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper
Synopsis /
Wollombi, The Hunter Valley 1847
The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is running through the bush as a monster chases her - but no one believes her story. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist with a dream. She is convinced she will one day find proof the great sea dragons - the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur - swam in the vast inland sea that millions of years ago covered her property at Bow Wow Gorge, and soon Mellie shares that dream for she loves fossil hunting too.
1919
When Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War 1 with the intention of making her peace with her father and commemorating the death of her two younger brothers in the trenches, her reception is not as she had hoped. Looking for distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History museum and her brothers which leads her to Bow Wow Gorge. But the gorge has a sinister reputation - 70 years ago people disappeared. So when PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, it seems as if the past is reaching into the present and she becomes determined to discover what really happened all that time ago.
My Thoughts /
Tea Cooper writes Australian contemporary and historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling.
The Fossil Hunter is brilliantly written by Australian author, Tea Cooper. I would rate it recommended reading if you are even 'slightly' interested in the following — vibrant characters; pioneering women; palaeontology; a story about discoveries of natural history (fossils); hidden mysteries of life on Earth and, an abandoned house shrouded in mystery.
Let's learn things:
What is a Fossil? — It's a relic, remnant, or representation of an organism that existed in a past geological age, or, of the activity of such an organism, occurring in the form of mineralized bones, shells, as casts, impressions, and moulds, and as frozen perfectly preserved organisms.
The Geologic Time Scale is divided into huge blocks of time called eras. Eras are defined by major changes in the fossils found in the sedimentary rock layers that were formed during those time spans. Fossils have taught us how and when rock layers have formed. They have also helped scientists learn about life forms that have come and gone. Fossils have even taught us about the climate of the earth long ago.
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (January 28, 1858 – December 16, 1940) was a Dutch anatomist, who earned worldwide fame with his discovery of the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Europe. These discoveries of what he called "Java man", made on the Indonesian island of Java, would later be classified as specimens of Homo erectus—the first human ancestor to walk truly upright.
To the Story:
A fossil, discovered at London’s Natural History Museum, leads Penelope Jane Martindale searching back in time — back to nineteenth century Australia; where, she will bring to light the mystery surrounding a world of scientific discovery and unearth the secrets that have remained hidden for the past 70 years.
This dual timeline historical fiction tale begins in a remote location in the Hunter Valley, in 1847 and alternates with London, England in 1919.
After contracting chickenpox, the last thing young Mellie Vale remembers before the fever overtakes her is running through the bush being chased by a monster. Accused of murder, Mellie's father, her only other living relative, has been taken away to account for his crime. Sick and alone, Mellie is taken in by the family of the local doctor who nurse her back to health. Mellie quickly realises how different she is from the other girls in the household, Lydia and Bea - girls who grew up with money and material possessions and who were afforded a good education. Each year Lydia and Bea were invited to visit and spend time with Anthea Winstanley on her property at Bow Wow Gorge. Long-time family friend, Anthea never had the opportunity to have children of her own, so looks forward to the girls' annual visit eagerly. And this is how Mellie Vale ends up in Bow Wow Gorge on a brand new exciting journey of discovery.
1919 London. Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of WWI. In an effort to work through the grief of losing her brothers in the war, PJ spends time at the London Museum of Natural History. On one such visit to the exhibit, she makes a memory connection between a fossil and her brothers during their childhood. This memory connection leads her to travel to Bow Wow Gorge where, PJ uncovers what appears to be human remains. This unexpected discovery makes PJ all the more determined to uncover the connection between her brothers and the skeletal remains found in the cave.
The author gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like for a female to devote her life to this profession, while also highlighting their outstanding contributions to palaeontology and natural history. This is a truly engaging read with strong and likeable female characters. The storyline of fossil hunters and fossil hunting was a unique premise and brought a whole other element of mystery and intrigue to the story. The descriptions of the mysterious bush locales of Bow Wow Gorge were stunning and fully complimented the narrative; and the author's mix of fact and fiction was seamlessly woven throughout the narrative. A story well worth reading.
Synopsis /
Wollombi, The Hunter Valley 1847
The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is running through the bush as a monster chases her - but no one believes her story. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist with a dream. She is convinced she will one day find proof the great sea dragons - the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur - swam in the vast inland sea that millions of years ago covered her property at Bow Wow Gorge, and soon Mellie shares that dream for she loves fossil hunting too.
1919
When Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War 1 with the intention of making her peace with her father and commemorating the death of her two younger brothers in the trenches, her reception is not as she had hoped. Looking for distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History museum and her brothers which leads her to Bow Wow Gorge. But the gorge has a sinister reputation - 70 years ago people disappeared. So when PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, it seems as if the past is reaching into the present and she becomes determined to discover what really happened all that time ago.
My Thoughts /
Tea Cooper writes Australian contemporary and historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling.
The Fossil Hunter is brilliantly written by Australian author, Tea Cooper. I would rate it recommended reading if you are even 'slightly' interested in the following — vibrant characters; pioneering women; palaeontology; a story about discoveries of natural history (fossils); hidden mysteries of life on Earth and, an abandoned house shrouded in mystery.
Let's learn things:
What is a Fossil? — It's a relic, remnant, or representation of an organism that existed in a past geological age, or, of the activity of such an organism, occurring in the form of mineralized bones, shells, as casts, impressions, and moulds, and as frozen perfectly preserved organisms.
The Geologic Time Scale is divided into huge blocks of time called eras. Eras are defined by major changes in the fossils found in the sedimentary rock layers that were formed during those time spans. Fossils have taught us how and when rock layers have formed. They have also helped scientists learn about life forms that have come and gone. Fossils have even taught us about the climate of the earth long ago.
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (January 28, 1858 – December 16, 1940) was a Dutch anatomist, who earned worldwide fame with his discovery of the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Europe. These discoveries of what he called "Java man", made on the Indonesian island of Java, would later be classified as specimens of Homo erectus—the first human ancestor to walk truly upright.
To the Story:
A fossil, discovered at London’s Natural History Museum, leads Penelope Jane Martindale searching back in time — back to nineteenth century Australia; where, she will bring to light the mystery surrounding a world of scientific discovery and unearth the secrets that have remained hidden for the past 70 years.
This dual timeline historical fiction tale begins in a remote location in the Hunter Valley, in 1847 and alternates with London, England in 1919.
After contracting chickenpox, the last thing young Mellie Vale remembers before the fever overtakes her is running through the bush being chased by a monster. Accused of murder, Mellie's father, her only other living relative, has been taken away to account for his crime. Sick and alone, Mellie is taken in by the family of the local doctor who nurse her back to health. Mellie quickly realises how different she is from the other girls in the household, Lydia and Bea - girls who grew up with money and material possessions and who were afforded a good education. Each year Lydia and Bea were invited to visit and spend time with Anthea Winstanley on her property at Bow Wow Gorge. Long-time family friend, Anthea never had the opportunity to have children of her own, so looks forward to the girls' annual visit eagerly. And this is how Mellie Vale ends up in Bow Wow Gorge on a brand new exciting journey of discovery.
1919 London. Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of WWI. In an effort to work through the grief of losing her brothers in the war, PJ spends time at the London Museum of Natural History. On one such visit to the exhibit, she makes a memory connection between a fossil and her brothers during their childhood. This memory connection leads her to travel to Bow Wow Gorge where, PJ uncovers what appears to be human remains. This unexpected discovery makes PJ all the more determined to uncover the connection between her brothers and the skeletal remains found in the cave.
The author gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like for a female to devote her life to this profession, while also highlighting their outstanding contributions to palaeontology and natural history. This is a truly engaging read with strong and likeable female characters. The storyline of fossil hunters and fossil hunting was a unique premise and brought a whole other element of mystery and intrigue to the story. The descriptions of the mysterious bush locales of Bow Wow Gorge were stunning and fully complimented the narrative; and the author's mix of fact and fiction was seamlessly woven throughout the narrative. A story well worth reading.
July 7, 2022
NOT BAD, JUST FORGETTABLE
Actual rating: 2.5
In all honesty, this was just not my cup of tea. While I didn't actually dislike it, I didn't like it either. It was just sort of meh. And I am sad to say, that I will soon forget even having read this.
👍 What I Liked 👍
Setting: I have long been fascinated by Mary Anning and her fossils. Recently I even went to Lyme Regis to walk in her footsteps. So I liked reading about another female fossil hunter.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Timelines: This story is told from dual timelines, one in the 19th century and one in 1919 straight after the Great War. In my opinion, the 1919 timeline was a weak spot for the story. It didn't bring much to the overall plot and I found myself wishing it was over more often than not. A lot of it also had to do with the characters in this timeline.
PJ: Our main character in the 1919 timeline, PJ was a mystery to me. I especially didn't understand her motivation in wanting to learn more about this mysterious female fossil hunter that she only just learnt existed. I just didn't understand why it mattered that much to her and it made me dislike her as a character.
Sam: Sam, PJ's fiance, didn't appeal to me either. I had a hard time pinning him down and understanding his character. He felt sketchy and several times I felt like he was gaslighting PJ and being very inconsiderate to her feelings and needs.
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
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Actual rating: 2.5
In all honesty, this was just not my cup of tea. While I didn't actually dislike it, I didn't like it either. It was just sort of meh. And I am sad to say, that I will soon forget even having read this.
👍 What I Liked 👍
Setting: I have long been fascinated by Mary Anning and her fossils. Recently I even went to Lyme Regis to walk in her footsteps. So I liked reading about another female fossil hunter.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Timelines: This story is told from dual timelines, one in the 19th century and one in 1919 straight after the Great War. In my opinion, the 1919 timeline was a weak spot for the story. It didn't bring much to the overall plot and I found myself wishing it was over more often than not. A lot of it also had to do with the characters in this timeline.
PJ: Our main character in the 1919 timeline, PJ was a mystery to me. I especially didn't understand her motivation in wanting to learn more about this mysterious female fossil hunter that she only just learnt existed. I just didn't understand why it mattered that much to her and it made me dislike her as a character.
Sam: Sam, PJ's fiance, didn't appeal to me either. I had a hard time pinning him down and understanding his character. He felt sketchy and several times I felt like he was gaslighting PJ and being very inconsiderate to her feelings and needs.
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
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Blog Post: 10 Criminally Underrated YA Books with an LGBTQ Twist
April 5, 2022
Valley during 1847, the family of Mellie Vale started to worry about her, so they sent her to family friend Anthea Winstanley. However, Mellie's family does not realise that Mellie and Anthea both enjoy hunting for Fossils and finding the fossil of ichthyosaur and plesiosaur on Anthea's property. In 1919 Penelope Jane Martindale, while in London, fell in love with a fossil at the Natural History Museum that led her to Bow Wow Gorge and a mystery to solve. The readers of The Fossil Hunter will continue to follow Penelope Jane Martindale to find out what happens.
The Fossil Hunter is another fantastic book by Tea Cooper. I enjoy the way Tea Cooper intertwines the two historical plots throughout this book, ensuring that I engage with the plots and characters. I love Tea Cooper's portrayal of her characters and the way they intertwine with each other throughout this book. The Fossil Hunter is well written and researched by Tea Cooper. I like Tea Cooper's description of the settings of The Fossil Hunter, which allows me to imagine being part of the book's plot.
The readers of The Fossil Hunter will learn about the small community of Wollombi in the Hunter Valley during the late 18th century. Also, the readers of The Fossil Hunter will understand the role of a palaeontologist in protecting the world's fossils.
I recommend this book.
The Fossil Hunter is another fantastic book by Tea Cooper. I enjoy the way Tea Cooper intertwines the two historical plots throughout this book, ensuring that I engage with the plots and characters. I love Tea Cooper's portrayal of her characters and the way they intertwine with each other throughout this book. The Fossil Hunter is well written and researched by Tea Cooper. I like Tea Cooper's description of the settings of The Fossil Hunter, which allows me to imagine being part of the book's plot.
The readers of The Fossil Hunter will learn about the small community of Wollombi in the Hunter Valley during the late 18th century. Also, the readers of The Fossil Hunter will understand the role of a palaeontologist in protecting the world's fossils.
I recommend this book.
December 31, 2021
4.5 stars
It was such a lovely coincidence that I picked up The Fossil Hunter to read after I had just returned from a weekend in Wollombi. This made the setting so easy to picture even though i had seen it over 100 years after the book is set I feel nothing much has really changed in this small town.
The Fossil Hunter is a dual time-line narrative with both time-lines (1847 & 1919) set in the past.
Tea Cooper's main characters are women interested in paleontology which was regarded as a strange pastime and was even cause for many rumours to morph and grow as the years passed.
I enjoyed how Cooper made paleontology interesting and even a little exciting. It is something I had never really thought about before.
What starts as an intriguing story of paleontology and finding fossils and possibly dinosaur bones soon turns to a compelling mystery.
There are times when we find questions in the second timeline which are yet to be played out in the first. I found myself eagerly reading not willing to put the book down until the final twist as Cooper adds elements of mystery and intrigue to the story.
The Fossil Hunter is another fabulous read from Tea Cooper. Compelling, interesting and wonderfully immersive.
*I received my copy from the publisher
It was such a lovely coincidence that I picked up The Fossil Hunter to read after I had just returned from a weekend in Wollombi. This made the setting so easy to picture even though i had seen it over 100 years after the book is set I feel nothing much has really changed in this small town.
The Fossil Hunter is a dual time-line narrative with both time-lines (1847 & 1919) set in the past.
Tea Cooper's main characters are women interested in paleontology which was regarded as a strange pastime and was even cause for many rumours to morph and grow as the years passed.
I enjoyed how Cooper made paleontology interesting and even a little exciting. It is something I had never really thought about before.
What starts as an intriguing story of paleontology and finding fossils and possibly dinosaur bones soon turns to a compelling mystery.
There are times when we find questions in the second timeline which are yet to be played out in the first. I found myself eagerly reading not willing to put the book down until the final twist as Cooper adds elements of mystery and intrigue to the story.
The Fossil Hunter is another fabulous read from Tea Cooper. Compelling, interesting and wonderfully immersive.
*I received my copy from the publisher
March 30, 2022
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This is a hard to put down read, it beautifully encapsulates the mystery of the people involved connecting the two time zones of 1847 and 1919 that come together by a young lady walking into the Natural History Museum in London at the end of WW1 and discovering a connection to her home town in Australia. After Penelope "PJ", so named by her American boyfriend Sam, discovered the connection of paleontologist Anthea Winstanley who died in England but had lived in Australia and her two brothers' interest in collecting fossils from the same spot she had to find out more about this woman. There is a strong emotional attachment to this quest in relation to her brothers who died in the war with her thoughts that any discovery may play a part in healing the wounds that her father's passive objection attitude to war and to his abhorrence that they went against his wishes and enlisted, along with the belief that PJ had encouraged them may bring some peace to him.
1847, a young traumatised girl has been rescued again from her nightly wanderings, sleepwalking to the millpond. Her nightly terrors have made her the target of abuse and ridicule from the Pearson girls and their friends where Mellie has been placed, her father encaserated having been accused of murdering a man. The ridicule from the cook and others of a monster bunyip adds to her fear and confusion. As the read progresses the author leaves no doubt of what transpired to this young girl but tastefully leaves the events to the reader's imagination.
PJ becomes obsessed with the need to discover the connection between Anthea's work and her brothers' own obsessions and fossil collections. She rakes through the collection and paraphernalia stored in a leftover trunk that had belonged to the Pearson's, known as the Doctor's house, her father like Pearson also a doctor. Startling discoveries are made which pushes PJ further, the need to know the truth of Anthea's abrupt departure from Australia. Ultimately after heading down to the cave sites a tragic discovery is made. However this just adds to the puzzle and it's not until later when PJ and Sam having acquired the keys to Anthea's abandoned house discover recent human disturbances and the sounds of a typewriter in use in the garden shed that all the pieces will start to fit together.
This is a hard to put down read, it beautifully encapsulates the mystery of the people involved connecting the two time zones of 1847 and 1919 that come together by a young lady walking into the Natural History Museum in London at the end of WW1 and discovering a connection to her home town in Australia. After Penelope "PJ", so named by her American boyfriend Sam, discovered the connection of paleontologist Anthea Winstanley who died in England but had lived in Australia and her two brothers' interest in collecting fossils from the same spot she had to find out more about this woman. There is a strong emotional attachment to this quest in relation to her brothers who died in the war with her thoughts that any discovery may play a part in healing the wounds that her father's passive objection attitude to war and to his abhorrence that they went against his wishes and enlisted, along with the belief that PJ had encouraged them may bring some peace to him.
1847, a young traumatised girl has been rescued again from her nightly wanderings, sleepwalking to the millpond. Her nightly terrors have made her the target of abuse and ridicule from the Pearson girls and their friends where Mellie has been placed, her father encaserated having been accused of murdering a man. The ridicule from the cook and others of a monster bunyip adds to her fear and confusion. As the read progresses the author leaves no doubt of what transpired to this young girl but tastefully leaves the events to the reader's imagination.
PJ becomes obsessed with the need to discover the connection between Anthea's work and her brothers' own obsessions and fossil collections. She rakes through the collection and paraphernalia stored in a leftover trunk that had belonged to the Pearson's, known as the Doctor's house, her father like Pearson also a doctor. Startling discoveries are made which pushes PJ further, the need to know the truth of Anthea's abrupt departure from Australia. Ultimately after heading down to the cave sites a tragic discovery is made. However this just adds to the puzzle and it's not until later when PJ and Sam having acquired the keys to Anthea's abandoned house discover recent human disturbances and the sounds of a typewriter in use in the garden shed that all the pieces will start to fit together.
October 15, 2021
‘It’s blood—bad blood—that’s causing it. A new pinafore and some education ain’t going to change nothing.’
Wollombi, Hunter Valley, NSW 1847 and 1919.
A fossil discovered at London’s Natural History Museum leads Penelope Jane (PJ) Martindale on a journey of discovery. PJ, who left Australia to serve as an ambulance driver in France during the Great War, returns home to her father in 1919. Her father gives her a cold welcome: he blames her for her younger brothers signing up to serve and then both losing their lives during the war. PJ, looking through some of her brothers’ possessions, finds some fossils they had found at Bow Wow Gorge, and she remembers the fossil she discovered at the Natural History Museum.
In 1847, Mellie Vale contracts chicken pox. The last thing she remembers before succumbing to fever is a monster chasing her. Mellie is taken in by Doctor Pearson and his family: returning home is not possible although Mellie is not told why for a while. The Pearson family, trying to help Mellie, send her with their two daughters and their two friends to visit their family friend Anthea Winstanley at her home near Bow Wow Gorge. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist, and Mellie quickly becomes caught up in the search for fossils.
In 1919, PJ is keen to learn more about Bow Wow Gorge, its fossils, and its connection to Anthea Winstanley. There’s a history about Bow Wow Gorge: apparently people disappeared there 70 years ago, and locals warn people against going there. PJ and her American boyfriend Sam explore, and amongst other mysteries, they discover some bones.
‘The Fossil Hunter’ is an intriguing dual timeline story which takes the reader between the lives of Mellie in 1847 and PJ in 1919. Both time periods have their dark secrets and mysteries, and PJ is determined to find out what really happened in 1847.
I really enjoyed this novel with its focus on natural history and its shifts between the stories of Mellie and PJ. A terrific blend of secrets and mystery spread across 72 years. Another terrific novel from Ms Cooper. Highly recommended to lovers of Australian historical fiction featuring some terrific female characters.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Wollombi, Hunter Valley, NSW 1847 and 1919.
A fossil discovered at London’s Natural History Museum leads Penelope Jane (PJ) Martindale on a journey of discovery. PJ, who left Australia to serve as an ambulance driver in France during the Great War, returns home to her father in 1919. Her father gives her a cold welcome: he blames her for her younger brothers signing up to serve and then both losing their lives during the war. PJ, looking through some of her brothers’ possessions, finds some fossils they had found at Bow Wow Gorge, and she remembers the fossil she discovered at the Natural History Museum.
In 1847, Mellie Vale contracts chicken pox. The last thing she remembers before succumbing to fever is a monster chasing her. Mellie is taken in by Doctor Pearson and his family: returning home is not possible although Mellie is not told why for a while. The Pearson family, trying to help Mellie, send her with their two daughters and their two friends to visit their family friend Anthea Winstanley at her home near Bow Wow Gorge. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist, and Mellie quickly becomes caught up in the search for fossils.
In 1919, PJ is keen to learn more about Bow Wow Gorge, its fossils, and its connection to Anthea Winstanley. There’s a history about Bow Wow Gorge: apparently people disappeared there 70 years ago, and locals warn people against going there. PJ and her American boyfriend Sam explore, and amongst other mysteries, they discover some bones.
‘The Fossil Hunter’ is an intriguing dual timeline story which takes the reader between the lives of Mellie in 1847 and PJ in 1919. Both time periods have their dark secrets and mysteries, and PJ is determined to find out what really happened in 1847.
I really enjoyed this novel with its focus on natural history and its shifts between the stories of Mellie and PJ. A terrific blend of secrets and mystery spread across 72 years. Another terrific novel from Ms Cooper. Highly recommended to lovers of Australian historical fiction featuring some terrific female characters.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
December 10, 2023
From the first paragraph, The Fossil Hunter was a pure delight to read! Mind you, Tea Cooper’s books (at least the two I’ve read so far) aren’t the sappy happy ever after sort, but ones that delve into the human spirit and one’s will to survive, even when life sometimes turns tragic. Having read The Cartographer’s Secret, a similar story rooted in mystery and tragedy, I was primed to read Ms. Cooper’s latest, a wonderfully written mystery set in Victorian Australia. It did not disappoint!
Not sure why the back cover book description mentions 1880 as the time of the story since the older timeline of Mellie Vale and Anthea Winstanley takes place in 1847, while the timeline of Penelope Martindale is in 1919. Either way, the story is a wonderful story, full of adventure, especially for anyone interested in historical mysteries involving secrets and fossil dinosaur bones and the exotic locale of Australia. I was tempted so many times to skip to the end to discover the truth behind the mystery so carefully and expertly doled out by the author, but I resisted, and it was worth the wait!
When Mellie Vale, an orphan, is brought to Bow Wow Gorge in the company of four other young girls, three of whom treat her very poorly, their hostess, Anthea Winstanley, a widowed paleontologist, takes Mellie under her wing and falls for the poor, unfortunate waif. Together, they form a bond based on trust and fossil hunting. But then, everything changes—tragedy; misadventure; no body knows—and it takes eighty years before a young Penelope Martindale and her beau Sam, an American, returning home from World War I as ambulance drivers, before the mysteries that have surrounded the sudden disappearance of Anthea Winstanley are solved. And what of Mellie and the girls rumored to have disappeared about the same time? And how do the dinosaur fossils Penelope’s brothers discovered several years before tie into the Winstanley mystery. All is not as it seems. Secrets abound, all of them carefully spun together into a tapestry of mystery, intrigue, and dinosaur fossils. And, like an archeologist delving slowing into the soil of a site layer by layer, years of rumors and secrets beneath the true story are laid bare one by one by the most unlikeliest of persons.
One the most enjoyable novels I’ve read this year.
Not sure why the back cover book description mentions 1880 as the time of the story since the older timeline of Mellie Vale and Anthea Winstanley takes place in 1847, while the timeline of Penelope Martindale is in 1919. Either way, the story is a wonderful story, full of adventure, especially for anyone interested in historical mysteries involving secrets and fossil dinosaur bones and the exotic locale of Australia. I was tempted so many times to skip to the end to discover the truth behind the mystery so carefully and expertly doled out by the author, but I resisted, and it was worth the wait!
When Mellie Vale, an orphan, is brought to Bow Wow Gorge in the company of four other young girls, three of whom treat her very poorly, their hostess, Anthea Winstanley, a widowed paleontologist, takes Mellie under her wing and falls for the poor, unfortunate waif. Together, they form a bond based on trust and fossil hunting. But then, everything changes—tragedy; misadventure; no body knows—and it takes eighty years before a young Penelope Martindale and her beau Sam, an American, returning home from World War I as ambulance drivers, before the mysteries that have surrounded the sudden disappearance of Anthea Winstanley are solved. And what of Mellie and the girls rumored to have disappeared about the same time? And how do the dinosaur fossils Penelope’s brothers discovered several years before tie into the Winstanley mystery. All is not as it seems. Secrets abound, all of them carefully spun together into a tapestry of mystery, intrigue, and dinosaur fossils. And, like an archeologist delving slowing into the soil of a site layer by layer, years of rumors and secrets beneath the true story are laid bare one by one by the most unlikeliest of persons.
One the most enjoyable novels I’ve read this year.
October 15, 2022
Dual Timelines of the past, country Australian setting, a mysterious disappearance, and the hunt for a ‘sea dragon’ make for a compelling historical adventure. New to me author in a favorite genre with the finding of dinosaur bones at the heart of the story had me enthusiastic to try The Fossil Hunters.
Like most dual time line stories, this book flips between the two periods in alternating sections. I enjoyed the fact that the most recent period was still a fascinating historical time. One time period is Victorian era Australia and the second is Post-WWI England and Australia.
The author infuses the past story with dramatic overtones as a young girl with chicken pox is taken in by the local doctor’s wife when she is left alone. Mellie doesn’t fit in with the genteel doctor’s daughters or their friends, but she is sent along to Aunt Anthea Winstanley for a summer holiday where Anthea introduces the lonely, picked on Mellie to the world of fossils and the fossil hunting at the Bow Wow ridge. Undercurrents between the girls and later with a situation that arises from Anthea’s past give it a mystery feel.
Meanwhile, in PJ’s time, she has been an ambulance driver in the war, fallen in love with a charming American ambulance driver, but mourns the loss of her younger brothers who died in the war and the loss of her relationship with a father who inexplicably blames her for their deaths. She ends up catching her brothers’ fossil hunting fever and follows the twisting trail in the past right back to Bow Wow ridge and its secrets.
A blend of historical fiction and mystery with a dash of romance, The Fossil Hunters was well-written, full of rich, colorful descriptions of the time and settings as well as the complex characters. I can’t exactly put my finger on the tone of the writing- not exactly atmospheric and yet, there is something that makes the reader feel something darker is being hinted at under the surface and building in the background. This sensation is a favorite feeling I have when a story builds so I was excited to get through the pages even when I felt the book got a little slow in spots. The reader is let in on the secrets of Bow Wow Ridge and Miss Baldwin who is there when PJ comes looking for answers about her brothers’ fossil find, but there was still a twist and reveal even while PJ finally gets things resolved with her family’s past and the pain in the present.
All in all, I thought the Fossil Hunters was a fab period piece and I definitely want to read more of Tea Cooper’s historicals. I enjoyed getting an Aussie author presenting some Aussie history and can definitely recommend this ‘dino’-mite book to other historical fiction fans.
I rec'd an eARC via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at Caffeinated Reviewer Oct 12.
Like most dual time line stories, this book flips between the two periods in alternating sections. I enjoyed the fact that the most recent period was still a fascinating historical time. One time period is Victorian era Australia and the second is Post-WWI England and Australia.
The author infuses the past story with dramatic overtones as a young girl with chicken pox is taken in by the local doctor’s wife when she is left alone. Mellie doesn’t fit in with the genteel doctor’s daughters or their friends, but she is sent along to Aunt Anthea Winstanley for a summer holiday where Anthea introduces the lonely, picked on Mellie to the world of fossils and the fossil hunting at the Bow Wow ridge. Undercurrents between the girls and later with a situation that arises from Anthea’s past give it a mystery feel.
Meanwhile, in PJ’s time, she has been an ambulance driver in the war, fallen in love with a charming American ambulance driver, but mourns the loss of her younger brothers who died in the war and the loss of her relationship with a father who inexplicably blames her for their deaths. She ends up catching her brothers’ fossil hunting fever and follows the twisting trail in the past right back to Bow Wow ridge and its secrets.
A blend of historical fiction and mystery with a dash of romance, The Fossil Hunters was well-written, full of rich, colorful descriptions of the time and settings as well as the complex characters. I can’t exactly put my finger on the tone of the writing- not exactly atmospheric and yet, there is something that makes the reader feel something darker is being hinted at under the surface and building in the background. This sensation is a favorite feeling I have when a story builds so I was excited to get through the pages even when I felt the book got a little slow in spots. The reader is let in on the secrets of Bow Wow Ridge and Miss Baldwin who is there when PJ comes looking for answers about her brothers’ fossil find, but there was still a twist and reveal even while PJ finally gets things resolved with her family’s past and the pain in the present.
All in all, I thought the Fossil Hunters was a fab period piece and I definitely want to read more of Tea Cooper’s historicals. I enjoyed getting an Aussie author presenting some Aussie history and can definitely recommend this ‘dino’-mite book to other historical fiction fans.
I rec'd an eARC via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at Caffeinated Reviewer Oct 12.
January 22, 2022
Told in two time lines , one in 1847 and the other from 1919, this is an entertaining historical read. The main characters are well drawn and the setting of Bow Wow Gorge and around Wollombi, NSW makes an interesting backdrop. Although I liked the story I was never completely absorbed by it. Maybe I‘m just not that much into fossils. But still definitely worth a read and would recommend it. Will be interested to read more by this author.
December 17, 2021
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
‘Mellie would be a wonderful fossil hunter – she had an inherent curiosity and a desire to seek solutions.’
The latest release from Australian historical fiction specialist Tea Cooper offers an aisle into the past, as a unique fossil and the baffling mystery surrounding this natural artefact is explored. The Fossil Hunter is a remarkable historical pendulum that swings effortlessly between locations, time periods and characters. It is a tale not to be missed if you love a good march into the past.
Opening in the Hunter Valley in 1847, we meet Mellie Vale, a woman consumed with strange thoughts and ideas around a monster in the bush. When Mellie is sent to visit a family friend name Anthea Winstanley, she shares this wild idea with the aspiring palaeontologist. Thanks to Anthea’s strong influence, Mellie sees fossil hunting as a vocation that she would like to explore. Together, they embark on a search for the illusive ichthyosaur, a giant prehistorical sea animal that was thought to occupy the local area. Moving forward in time to the year 1919, following the tumultuous Great War, we are acquainted with a woman who has returned from the battlefields. As Penelope works through her grief following the loss of two brothers in the Great War, she is drawn to an important fossil in a London Museum and a loose link to her deceased siblings. As a result, Penelope travels to Bow Wow Gorge, a place that holds many shadowy secrets. With unexplained remains, the disappearance of individuals from the area and plenty of speculation surrounding Bow Wow Gorge, can Penelope finally put the past to rest successfully?
I never miss a new Tea Cooper novel and The Fossil Hunter is a book that I’ve been eagerly awaiting all year. I really enjoyed my journey back into the past with the locations, cast and enthralling fossil-based storyline that came from Tea Cooper. The Fossil Hunter represents another historical fiction triumph from the talented Australian author.
With three excellent and domineering women ahead of their time in this new historical fiction timepiece, The Fossil Hunter proved to be a wholly engaging read. It was a joy and an honour to follow the individual pathways of these female trailblazers. The added dimension of the art of fossil hunting really lifted this one storyline wise. It is clear that Tea Cooper has embarked on a high level of detailed researched to bring this enlightening tale to light. As sad as it is to reach the end of a Tea Cooper novel, I must say I always look forward to reading this writer’s closing historical note. The historical note contained in The Fossil Hunter was just as I expected and more. This bonus back page spread added a truly amazing window into the background of this novel. I was able to fully appreciate all the work that went into The Fossil Hunter once I read the final historical note.
Tea Cooper is an ambitious storyteller and she pushes herself yet again with her latest novel. With three women, two separate timeframes and a trek from London to Australia to contend with, The Fossil Hunter is a highly compelling story. Tea Cooper takes great care to insert a range of themes in her latest release. These moving themes include war, recovery, loss, grief, education, women’s rights, discovery, imagination, myths, legends and natural history. With some generous descriptions of the mysterious bush locale of Bow Wow Gorge complimenting each of these narrative threads, Tea Cooper has conjured up a truly mesmerising historical tale. Although many of the creative story elements of The Fossil Hunter are fictional, I still felt that this novel had a good sense of authenticity and credibility. It was great to see Cooper take on the world of female contributions to natural history and role of museums in the past. I think these aspects will be sure to stay with me.
With fact and fiction fused effortlessly in The Fossil Hunter, Tea Cooper offers the reader a wondrous step into the past thanks to the pioneering female fossil enthusiasts of the nineteenth century. The Fossil Hunter is another momentous tale from Tea Cooper.
*With thanks to Harlequin Books Australian for a copy of this book for review purposes.
The Fossil Hunter is book #106 of the 2021 Australian Women Writers Challenge
‘Mellie would be a wonderful fossil hunter – she had an inherent curiosity and a desire to seek solutions.’
The latest release from Australian historical fiction specialist Tea Cooper offers an aisle into the past, as a unique fossil and the baffling mystery surrounding this natural artefact is explored. The Fossil Hunter is a remarkable historical pendulum that swings effortlessly between locations, time periods and characters. It is a tale not to be missed if you love a good march into the past.
Opening in the Hunter Valley in 1847, we meet Mellie Vale, a woman consumed with strange thoughts and ideas around a monster in the bush. When Mellie is sent to visit a family friend name Anthea Winstanley, she shares this wild idea with the aspiring palaeontologist. Thanks to Anthea’s strong influence, Mellie sees fossil hunting as a vocation that she would like to explore. Together, they embark on a search for the illusive ichthyosaur, a giant prehistorical sea animal that was thought to occupy the local area. Moving forward in time to the year 1919, following the tumultuous Great War, we are acquainted with a woman who has returned from the battlefields. As Penelope works through her grief following the loss of two brothers in the Great War, she is drawn to an important fossil in a London Museum and a loose link to her deceased siblings. As a result, Penelope travels to Bow Wow Gorge, a place that holds many shadowy secrets. With unexplained remains, the disappearance of individuals from the area and plenty of speculation surrounding Bow Wow Gorge, can Penelope finally put the past to rest successfully?
I never miss a new Tea Cooper novel and The Fossil Hunter is a book that I’ve been eagerly awaiting all year. I really enjoyed my journey back into the past with the locations, cast and enthralling fossil-based storyline that came from Tea Cooper. The Fossil Hunter represents another historical fiction triumph from the talented Australian author.
With three excellent and domineering women ahead of their time in this new historical fiction timepiece, The Fossil Hunter proved to be a wholly engaging read. It was a joy and an honour to follow the individual pathways of these female trailblazers. The added dimension of the art of fossil hunting really lifted this one storyline wise. It is clear that Tea Cooper has embarked on a high level of detailed researched to bring this enlightening tale to light. As sad as it is to reach the end of a Tea Cooper novel, I must say I always look forward to reading this writer’s closing historical note. The historical note contained in The Fossil Hunter was just as I expected and more. This bonus back page spread added a truly amazing window into the background of this novel. I was able to fully appreciate all the work that went into The Fossil Hunter once I read the final historical note.
Tea Cooper is an ambitious storyteller and she pushes herself yet again with her latest novel. With three women, two separate timeframes and a trek from London to Australia to contend with, The Fossil Hunter is a highly compelling story. Tea Cooper takes great care to insert a range of themes in her latest release. These moving themes include war, recovery, loss, grief, education, women’s rights, discovery, imagination, myths, legends and natural history. With some generous descriptions of the mysterious bush locale of Bow Wow Gorge complimenting each of these narrative threads, Tea Cooper has conjured up a truly mesmerising historical tale. Although many of the creative story elements of The Fossil Hunter are fictional, I still felt that this novel had a good sense of authenticity and credibility. It was great to see Cooper take on the world of female contributions to natural history and role of museums in the past. I think these aspects will be sure to stay with me.
With fact and fiction fused effortlessly in The Fossil Hunter, Tea Cooper offers the reader a wondrous step into the past thanks to the pioneering female fossil enthusiasts of the nineteenth century. The Fossil Hunter is another momentous tale from Tea Cooper.
*With thanks to Harlequin Books Australian for a copy of this book for review purposes.
The Fossil Hunter is book #106 of the 2021 Australian Women Writers Challenge
July 4, 2022
The Fossil Hunter is probably one of the hardest books I've ever had to review before if I'm being honest. While I'd read and loved The Girl in the Painting by this author and was expecting to end up feeling the same about this one, it didn't end up being anything like what I was expecting, and I really struggled to connect with either the characters or the story in either timeline.
I would say overall that I enjoyed the 1847 timeline a lot more than the one happening in 1912, but I can't truly say that I loved either. A lot of the story is devoted to history, and paleontology and not as much to suspense as I was initially expecting. There isn't truly as much of a connection between the two timelines as I was prepared for, and I felt that it made the story that much harder to muddle through.
A lot of the questions raised were never really answered in a way that satisfied me, and I was left at the end of the story wondering why certain things happened in the first place, as no reasonable explanation was ever truly given.
I found Sam's character in 1912 to be utterly obnoxious, and his horrid treatment of Penelope grated on my nerves right from the opening chapters. I couldn't remotely root for their romance, and everything about their relationship screamed toxicity.
I ended up not really enjoying the mystery, the romance, or the majority of the characters, and the few parts I did enjoy, like the historical components and a couple of the characters, were not enough to salvage this one for me unfortunately, and I ended up feeling pretty negative towards it at the end.
I would personally recommend The Girl in the Painting over this one, and I'm not sure if I'd rush out to read another book by this author again or not.
Final Rating: 2/5.
Thanks so much to Harper Muse for allowing me to advance read and review this one!
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Harper Muse) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. This is my honest review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I would say overall that I enjoyed the 1847 timeline a lot more than the one happening in 1912, but I can't truly say that I loved either. A lot of the story is devoted to history, and paleontology and not as much to suspense as I was initially expecting. There isn't truly as much of a connection between the two timelines as I was prepared for, and I felt that it made the story that much harder to muddle through.
A lot of the questions raised were never really answered in a way that satisfied me, and I was left at the end of the story wondering why certain things happened in the first place, as no reasonable explanation was ever truly given.
I found Sam's character in 1912 to be utterly obnoxious, and his horrid treatment of Penelope grated on my nerves right from the opening chapters. I couldn't remotely root for their romance, and everything about their relationship screamed toxicity.
I ended up not really enjoying the mystery, the romance, or the majority of the characters, and the few parts I did enjoy, like the historical components and a couple of the characters, were not enough to salvage this one for me unfortunately, and I ended up feeling pretty negative towards it at the end.
I would personally recommend The Girl in the Painting over this one, and I'm not sure if I'd rush out to read another book by this author again or not.
Final Rating: 2/5.
Thanks so much to Harper Muse for allowing me to advance read and review this one!
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Harper Muse) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. This is my honest review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
August 6, 2022
I absolutely adored Tea Cooper's The Fossil Hunter. The author gives the readers a wonderful dual timeline story that centers around an amateur paleontologist. While the plot is centered around fossil hunting, this is mostly a story of the invisible scars that can haunt one for years. I loved the many twists, some expected, some unexpected that filled this story of long buried secrets that would come to light 80 years later. The descriptive prose of the Australian outback grabbed this Kansas girl's attention as Ms. Cooper masterfully weaved scientific fact and historical detail into a brilliant tapestry that will capture the reader's imagination.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book from the author/ publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book from the author/ publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.
March 12, 2025
I absolutely LOVED this! A historical mystery set in Australia at an easy-going pace with characters you enjoy.
October 27, 2021
‘In this moment she recognised that her curiosity about the past - this house, Bow Wow Gorge, its fossils and Anthea Winstanley - had become a consuming passion. Who was the elusive woman and what had made her leave this place?’
A new Australian historical fiction book by Tea Cooper is reason to celebrate as she guarantees great escapism. I have enjoyed all of Tea’s previous works as they have proven to be consistently engaging and masterfully crafted tales of mystery and intrigue.
In her latest offering, The Fossil Hunter, Tea provides the perfect blend of fact and fiction in a riveting historical mystery. Giving her readers a dual narrative timeline set in the years 1847 and 1919, Tea has cleverly placed both people and incidents that let her readers gather all the clues to place together for a satisfying conclusion.
‘You have to be patient. You can look, and look, and see nothing and then the next moment the very thing you’ve been searching for is right in front of your eyes, where it has sat forever. It’s a lot like life.’
I fully appreciated how the mysteries of the past lent beautifully into the present timeline of discovery. I felt the themes ranging from folklore to scientific discoveries, or bullying and PTSD were sensitively presented by Tea. Along with unique characters and family secrets, Tea included such fascinating information on fossil collecting and interesting scientific revelations.
‘Only at Bow Wow, beneath the dense canopy of the trees, did Anthea truly find peace, the place where the layers of life reached back to the beginning of time, before a single human had walked the land, before the earth solidified. From the towering sandstone cliffs to the meandering creek, which over millions of years had carved a narrow winding gorge, the landscape had slowly revealed its secrets.’
Tea is to be congratulated for presenting such an engaging and comprehensive tale. The settings both in England and Australia are authentic, particularly with the incorporation of real life events such as the fossil discoveries in Lyme Regis in England. It is the everyday cultural feel, from traipsing down Bow Wow Gorge in the Hunter Valley, to visiting the Natural Museum in London that Tea effortlessly includes the reader so seamlessly into her riveting tale.
Congratulations Tea on once again proving your prose is up there with the best. From strong protagonists, to family drama and mystery, to the breathtaking vistas of the bush - I highly recommend the tale that is, The Fossil Hunter.
‘PJ took one last look at the dappled gorge and, tucking the fossil in her pocket, left behind the fascinating secrets of Bow Wow Gorge, regret prickling her skin.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
A new Australian historical fiction book by Tea Cooper is reason to celebrate as she guarantees great escapism. I have enjoyed all of Tea’s previous works as they have proven to be consistently engaging and masterfully crafted tales of mystery and intrigue.
In her latest offering, The Fossil Hunter, Tea provides the perfect blend of fact and fiction in a riveting historical mystery. Giving her readers a dual narrative timeline set in the years 1847 and 1919, Tea has cleverly placed both people and incidents that let her readers gather all the clues to place together for a satisfying conclusion.
‘You have to be patient. You can look, and look, and see nothing and then the next moment the very thing you’ve been searching for is right in front of your eyes, where it has sat forever. It’s a lot like life.’
I fully appreciated how the mysteries of the past lent beautifully into the present timeline of discovery. I felt the themes ranging from folklore to scientific discoveries, or bullying and PTSD were sensitively presented by Tea. Along with unique characters and family secrets, Tea included such fascinating information on fossil collecting and interesting scientific revelations.
‘Only at Bow Wow, beneath the dense canopy of the trees, did Anthea truly find peace, the place where the layers of life reached back to the beginning of time, before a single human had walked the land, before the earth solidified. From the towering sandstone cliffs to the meandering creek, which over millions of years had carved a narrow winding gorge, the landscape had slowly revealed its secrets.’
Tea is to be congratulated for presenting such an engaging and comprehensive tale. The settings both in England and Australia are authentic, particularly with the incorporation of real life events such as the fossil discoveries in Lyme Regis in England. It is the everyday cultural feel, from traipsing down Bow Wow Gorge in the Hunter Valley, to visiting the Natural Museum in London that Tea effortlessly includes the reader so seamlessly into her riveting tale.
Congratulations Tea on once again proving your prose is up there with the best. From strong protagonists, to family drama and mystery, to the breathtaking vistas of the bush - I highly recommend the tale that is, The Fossil Hunter.
‘PJ took one last look at the dappled gorge and, tucking the fossil in her pocket, left behind the fascinating secrets of Bow Wow Gorge, regret prickling her skin.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
February 15, 2022
The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper is a wonderful dual timeline historical fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I have been a fan of Ms. Cooper for a while now, and I am really glad I was able to read this book from her as well.
This book that weaves between 1847 in Australia and 1919 literally has it all: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and is just so unique and engaging.
The female characters from both time periods are all complex, intriguing, and I loved their respective quests for knowledge and unearthing the truth. The way the author was able to not only craft these personalities, but also to interweave their stories together is impressive.
One can obviously see the the extensive research and passion the author has placed into this book in her wonderful descriptions of the landscapes, surroundings, and the archeological aspects.
My special favorite was the 1847 timeline. For some reason, I was really drawn to Mellie and Anthea. PJ was great as well, but I really loved the “past” timeline.
Another home run by Ms. Cooper.
5/5 stars
Thank you NG and Harper Muse for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 8/9/22.
I have been a fan of Ms. Cooper for a while now, and I am really glad I was able to read this book from her as well.
This book that weaves between 1847 in Australia and 1919 literally has it all: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and is just so unique and engaging.
The female characters from both time periods are all complex, intriguing, and I loved their respective quests for knowledge and unearthing the truth. The way the author was able to not only craft these personalities, but also to interweave their stories together is impressive.
One can obviously see the the extensive research and passion the author has placed into this book in her wonderful descriptions of the landscapes, surroundings, and the archeological aspects.
My special favorite was the 1847 timeline. For some reason, I was really drawn to Mellie and Anthea. PJ was great as well, but I really loved the “past” timeline.
Another home run by Ms. Cooper.
5/5 stars
Thank you NG and Harper Muse for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 8/9/22.
October 25, 2021
The Fossil Hunter is my first Tea Cooper novel, but it certainly won’t be my last. What a terrific novel of historical fiction this was. It contained so many of the story elements I like best: pioneering women, natural history, and an abandoned house tainted by mystery. What a talented writer Tea Cooper is, both with character creation and her story weaving.
There were some serious underlying themes explored within both timelines and the links between both eras were solid and plausible – something I always look for in dual narrative historical fiction. References to early female pioneers of palaeontology – fossil hunters – were sprinkled throughout, offering a springboard for further reading if you were so inclined. It was just by coincidence that I recently watched the film Ammonite, a story about Mary Anning, the 19th century English palaeontologist, who is mentioned as an associate of Anthea Winstanley in The Fossil Hunter. I love it when my reading and viewing crosses over like that.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Fossil Hunter and recommend it highly to fans of Australian historical fiction.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
There were some serious underlying themes explored within both timelines and the links between both eras were solid and plausible – something I always look for in dual narrative historical fiction. References to early female pioneers of palaeontology – fossil hunters – were sprinkled throughout, offering a springboard for further reading if you were so inclined. It was just by coincidence that I recently watched the film Ammonite, a story about Mary Anning, the 19th century English palaeontologist, who is mentioned as an associate of Anthea Winstanley in The Fossil Hunter. I love it when my reading and viewing crosses over like that.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Fossil Hunter and recommend it highly to fans of Australian historical fiction.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
December 12, 2021
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.
I love Tea Cooper's books and this is no exception. Beautifully written and researched with realistic characters. Always such a pleasure to read.
I love Tea Cooper's books and this is no exception. Beautifully written and researched with realistic characters. Always such a pleasure to read.
October 8, 2021
What a wonderful book from Tea Cooper. I do like her books and her writing and I really enjoyed this one as it just kept me reading and kept me interested in the story of two interesting and to a point strong women from different eras who eventually came together at a later time.
This is a book of two stories, two women and two times. First we have Mellie, a young girl in 1847 and her story of loss, despair and of finding a passion that continued on throughout her life. Then there is PJ, again a young girl, in 1919 who has left Australia to help out in France during World War 1. She too suffers loss and through this discovers a world she had not known existed.
The stories flow seamlessly from the two different eras and you can see they will collide at some stage bringing with it secrets, hope and acceptance. The writing and research is brilliant and the characters are well though out and well represented, some being stronger and more prominent while others bringing just enough to the story to make it interesting.
I loved this book, I loved that it is set mainly in Australia and the description of the bush and the lifestyle is so relevant to us Australians. And I must say I did have a little giggle towards the end of the book when PJ told her fiancé Sam that echidnas were shy creatures as our echidnas here in Tasmanian are not really known for being shy and we see them everywhere, even walking down the side of the road. They are adorable!
I Highly recommend this wonderful, passionate and intriguing story.
The Fossil Hunter
Tea Cooper
Harlequin Australia
This is a book of two stories, two women and two times. First we have Mellie, a young girl in 1847 and her story of loss, despair and of finding a passion that continued on throughout her life. Then there is PJ, again a young girl, in 1919 who has left Australia to help out in France during World War 1. She too suffers loss and through this discovers a world she had not known existed.
The stories flow seamlessly from the two different eras and you can see they will collide at some stage bringing with it secrets, hope and acceptance. The writing and research is brilliant and the characters are well though out and well represented, some being stronger and more prominent while others bringing just enough to the story to make it interesting.
I loved this book, I loved that it is set mainly in Australia and the description of the bush and the lifestyle is so relevant to us Australians. And I must say I did have a little giggle towards the end of the book when PJ told her fiancé Sam that echidnas were shy creatures as our echidnas here in Tasmanian are not really known for being shy and we see them everywhere, even walking down the side of the road. They are adorable!
I Highly recommend this wonderful, passionate and intriguing story.
The Fossil Hunter
Tea Cooper
Harlequin Australia
May 12, 2022
PJ Martindale left her home in Australia to drive in Europe during WWI. She is mourning the loss of her brothers who were lost in the trenches fighting. She has fallen in love with an American ambulance driver and as she prepares to head home to Australia when the war is over, she decides to make a stop in a museum. She is instantly drawn to the fossils on display because fossil hunting is something her brothers loved to do. When she stumbles across some fossils that are dated 1847 and were found right in her own backyard in Australia…she becomes obsessed with their origin, their story and the person who found the remains.
Set in a dual timeline, this story is a historical mystery with lots of twists and turns, rain and mud what is left behind when the water washes the mud away.
I enjoyed this story but was hoping for a bit more suspense. It is definitely an interesting read and I learned a lot about paleontology in Australia and it’s folklore.
Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Muse and Tea Cooper for early access to this story. I loved getting a chance to go down under and learn about Australia in the 1800’s!
Set in a dual timeline, this story is a historical mystery with lots of twists and turns, rain and mud what is left behind when the water washes the mud away.
I enjoyed this story but was hoping for a bit more suspense. It is definitely an interesting read and I learned a lot about paleontology in Australia and it’s folklore.
Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Muse and Tea Cooper for early access to this story. I loved getting a chance to go down under and learn about Australia in the 1800’s!
November 12, 2021
This is the second historically novel I have listened to by this author- strong female characters & Australian history. The fossil hunters have it all - history, mystery & romance.
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