Gone

by Geoff Spedding

The sixth adventure in the Erik Portland series of novels is, as usual, set in the Victorian High Country in South-East Australia. A group of young people bush-walking across the mountainous area, vanishes. Their disappearance causes concern for the Victoria Police Force, State Emergency Service and Rev Erik Portland, a semi-retired pastor in the small High Country town of Ulf. The young people are associated with the Reformed Evangelical Fellowship, of which he is a pastor in the High Country group in Ulf. As he and the local policed members of the emergency services, together with the Ulf youth group and church leaders set about seeking the lost, other circumstances come to light.There had been two mystery earthquakes in the High Country where seismic activity is almost non-existent and small groups of criminals also enter the hills, valleys, gorges, ridges and mountains, seeking someone who is also lost. As 'Gone' unfolds its plot, all the groups converge upon a single area in the High Country. What follows is for the reader to find out...

197 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2013

About the author

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