Taking a Chance

Deborah Burrows

May 2013 · Macmillan Publishers Aus.

About this ebook

Perth, 1943. A time for taking chances.

Eleanor 'Nell' Fitzgerald is smart - inside and out. For now, she writes helpful fashion advice for a local rag, but is bursting with ambition and plans to marry her lawyer beau as soon as he returns from wartime service. When she meets the handsome, famous and oh-so-charming Johnny Horvath of the American Press Corps, she finds herself dragged into a murder mystery.

Convicted of the murder of her artist lover, Lena Mitrovic is languishing in Fremantle Gaol. Johnny is sure of Lena's innocence and ropes in Nell to help him find the truth. During their investigation, they uncover some seedy secrets of wartime Perth: the other side of the "American Occupation". Girls and young women have been throwing caution to the wind, entering into romances and liaisons with the visiting servicemen.

And Nell soon discovers that not everybody has good intentions...

Ratings and reviews

I really liked this book - 4.5 stars. It was a fascinating excursion into an exciting time in Australia's past. Nell is a fashion and beauty journo who gets involved in solving a murder mystery with a handsome American war correspondent. I enjoyed the mystery aspect, and I didn't guess 'whodunnit'. I thought that the romance was sweet and I loved the descriptions of the fashion of the time. I'm fascinated by the 1940s and Australia at war, and by the lives of the women who held the homefront together.

About the author

Deborah Burrows is a lawyer, historian and writer from Perth. She is currently based in Oxford and writing fulltime. Her first novel, A Stranger in My Street, was published in 2012, followed by Taking a Chance in 2013. She was inspired to write about Australia in World War II by her mother's stories of dancing with American servicemen in Perth. Her father's exploits as a commando fighting in East Timor and New Guinea with the famed 2/2nd Independent Company were an inspiration for A Time of Secrets.