Judie M. reviewed on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Mary Abacus, tenacious, spirited and a woman of independant mind, has arrived in her new land under the most onerous of circumstances. Sometime mistress of the notorious London criminal Ikey Solomon, Mary has been transported to Van Diemen's Land for running a bawdy house. She is soon joined on the convict settlement by Ikey and his wife, Hannah, herself a strong-minded woman, consumed by warring passions, a great love for her children and a loathing for her husband and his mistress. Determined to survive their past and to shape a new future, the two women raise separate families - one legitimate, the other bastard, and both bearing the name of Solomon. Ruled by Ikey's greed, Hannah's hate and Mary's unswerving ambition, the families ride the brink of disaster as each woman sets out to destroy the other.
