Marshall Browne's trilogy of historical novels: 'The Gilded Cage', 'The Burnt City' and 'The Trumpeting Angel'.
The trilogy provides a unique saga of all classes of society in Melbourne in the 1890s and includes love affairs, murder, court cases and financial booms and busts. It has been highly praised by many critics.
'The Gilded Cage'
First in the Melbourne historical trilogy. Set at the height of the land boom in Melbourne in 1888, this is the story of William Boyd, a wealthy but feckless young man distracted from his business by a love affair with a young, unstable artist.
An old enemy of William's father involves him in an enormous but unsound loan that threatens to wipe out the savings of all the bank's depositors. As his public and private worlds implode, William finds himself tested as never before.
A splendid gallery of characters twirl like dancers in a gilded cage in this dazzling evocation of pre-Federation Melbourne.
'The Burnt City'
Melbourne, 1893. Banks are crashing, businesses failing, the unemployed and starving marching in the streets. The aftermath of the greed and corruption of the 1880s is "an inferno of dishonesty and ruthlessness".
In this splendidly interconnecting novel, a combination of history and fiction, a bank liquidator seeks justice for the victims of the crash. He confronts official obstruction and blackmail. A department store is fighting for survival. A young woman with "the latest retailing experience" arrives from Lancashire. Love affairs flicker and flare.
A rich cast, layer after layer of plots, arresting scenes, social documents, marvellously evoke the era. The embattled city broods in a sultry summer, a deadly autumn.
'The Trumpeting Angel'
In Melbourne in 1899, politician John Deveraux falls in love with Susan Fairfax, businesswoman and suffragette. Thwarted when he discovers her secret, he seeks revenge. Then his own past begins to catch up with him. A professional assassin arrives from California and the plot thickens with love affairs, unsolved crimes, the fight for women's rights, parliamentary feuds, and a trial.
This novel proceeds through the drawing rooms, business world and courts of late nineteenth century Melbourne. It contains a rich cast of characters, layer after layer of plot, curious social details and many arresting scenes. Famous historical figures make cameo appearances as Federation unfolds in the background, and the young nation steps with high hopes into the Twentieth Century.
