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  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781864714562
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

Ghost Child




Caroline Overington's stunning fiction debut is a multi-voiced novel centred around a child's death and its terrible repercussions.

Caroline Overington's stunning fiction debut is a multi-voiced novel centred around a child's death and its terrible repercussions.

In 1982 Victorian police were called to a home on a housing estate an hour west of Melbourne. There, they found a five-year-old boy lying still and silent on the carpet. There were no obvious signs of trauma, but the child, Jacob, died the next day.

The story made the headlines and hundreds attended the funeral. Few people were surprised when the boy's mother and her boyfriend went to prison for the crime. Police declared themselves satisfied with the result, saying there was no doubt that justice had been done.

And yet, for years rumours swept the estate and clung like cobwebs to the long-vacant house: there had been a cover-up. The real perpetrator, at least according to local gossip, was the boy's six-year-old sister, Lauren . . .

Twenty years on, Lauren has created a new life for herself, but details of Jacob's death being to resurface and the story again makes the newspapers. As Lauren struggles with the ghosts of her childhood, it seems only a matter of time before the past catches up with her.

  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781864714562
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

About the author

Caroline Overington

Caroline Overington is the Associate Editor of the iconic magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly.

Caroline has won the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, and she's a former winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for journalism, and of the Blake Dawson prize.

She is the author of five bestselling novels: Ghost Child, I Came to Say Goodbye, Matilda is Missing, Sisters of Mercy and No Place Like Home.

Also by Caroline Overington

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Praise for Ghost Child

The author has covered many such stories as an investigative journalist, but uses this novel to explore the concern we feel for the children left behind after such traumatic experiences. A thoughtful approach to troubling real-life events.

Woman’s Day

A gripping debut novel . . . Taut writing helps rachet up the tension between the voices of each of the people involved, until all the layers are stripped away to finally reveal the truth.

The Australian Women’s Weekly

It is powerful and engrossing and will keep you guessing right until the end.

Townsville Bulletin