Casey Withoos has narrated 10 audiobooks on Listento.it by 5 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is The Woman in the Green Dress.
The Woman in the Green Dress
Summary
A cursed opal, a gnarled family tree, and a sinister woman in a green dress emerge in the aftermath of World War I. After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards can’t wait for her new husband, Hugh, to return from the Great War. But when word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a sizable family fortune. Refusing to accept the inheritance, she heads to his beloved home country of Australia in search of the relatives who deserve it more. In spite of her reluctance, she soon finds herself the sole owner of a remote farm and a dilapidated curio shop full of long-forgotten artifacts, remarkable preserved creatures, and a mystery that began more than 65 years ago. With the help of Kip, a repatriated soldier dealing with the sobering aftereffects of war, Fleur finds herself unable to resist pulling on the threads of the past. What she finds is a shocking story surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress...a story that, nevertheless, offers hope and healing for the future. This romantic mystery from award-winning Australian novelist Tea Cooper will keep listeners guessing until the astonishing conclusion. "Readers of Kate Morton and Beatriz Williams will be dazzled. The Woman in the Green Dress spins readers into an evocative world of mystery and romance in this deeply researched book by Tea Cooper. There is a Dickensian flair to Cooper’s carefully constructed world of lost inheritances and found treasures as two indomitable women stretched across centuries work to reconcile their pasts while reclaiming love, identity and belonging against two richly moving historical settings. As soon as you turn the last page you want to start again just to see how every last thread is sewn in anticipation of its thrilling conclusion. One of the most intelligent, visceral and vibrant historical reads I have had the privilege of visiting in an age." (Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration) "Refreshing and unique, The Woman in the Green Dress sweeps you across the wild lands of Australia in a thrilling whirl of mystery, romance, and danger. This magical tale weaves together two storylines with a heart-pounding finish that is drop-dead gorgeous." (J’nell Ciesielski, author of The Socialite) Full-length historical story with both romance and mystery Stand-alone novel Includes discussion questions for book clubs
©2020 Tea Cooper (P)2020 Thomas Nelson
Painting in the Shadows
Summary
Art dealer Alex Clayton and conservator John Porter are thrilled to be previewing the Melbourne International Museum of Art’s (MIMA) newest exhibition, until they witness a museum worker collapse and badly damage a reportedly cursed painting. Belief in the curse is strengthened when MIMA’s senior conservator, Meredith Buchanan, dies less than 24 hours later while repairing the work. But Alex and John are convinced there is a decidedly human element at work in the museum. The evidence sets them on the trail of a mysterious painting that could hold a key to Meredith’s death, and the stakes are raised higher when Alex is offered her dream job at MIMA. Damaging the museum’s reputation will jeopardise her professional future. The friends soon realise they are facing an adversary far more ruthless than they had anticipated and there is much more at risk than Alex’s career.
©2019 Katherine Kovacic (P)2020 W F Howes
Just One Wish
Summary
Three women, three secrets, one life-changing journey - an engrossing and wise novel about ambition, choices and what it means to be a woman. Alice has always been a trailblazer, as a scientist, activist and mother. She knew her choices would involve sacrifices, but now, on the eve of her 80th birthday, she’s beginning to wonder if she’s sacrificed too much. Alice’s daughter, Sappho, rebelled against her unconventional upbringing, choosing to marry young and embrace life as a homemaker, but her status as a domestic goddess has recently taken a surprising turn. Ged has always been the peacemaker between her grandmother and mother. A tenacious journalist, she knows what she wants in life and love, yet when everything in her world starts falling apart, she begins to question whether she really knows anyone at all. At a crossroads in each of their lives, Alice, Sappho and Ged embark on a celebratory trip together, but instead of bringing them closer, the holiday sparks life-changing consequences and lifts the lid on a 50-year-old secret. Can Ged rescue her family if their story is built on a betrayal?
©2019 Rachael Johns (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
The Portrait of Molly Dean
Summary
In 1999, art dealer Alex Clayton stumbles across a lost portrait of Molly Dean, an artist’s muse brutally slain in Melbourne in 1930. Alex buys the painting and sets out to uncover more details, but finds there are strange inconsistencies: Molly’s mother seemed unconcerned by her daughter’s violent death, the main suspect was never brought to trial despite compelling evidence and vital records are missing. Alex enlists the help of her close friend, art conservator John Porter, and together they sift through the clues and deceptions that swirl around the last days of Molly Dean.
©2018 Katherine Kovacic (P)2020 W F Howes
The Shifting Landscape
Summary
An Alex Clayton Art Mystery Ned Kelly Award-shortlisted author Art dealer Alex Clayton travels to Victoria’s Western District to value the McMillan family’s collection. At their historic sheep station, she finds an important and previously unknown colonial painting - and a family fraught with tension. There are arguments about the future of the property and its place in an ancient and highly significant indigenous landscape. When the family patriarch dies under mysterious circumstances and the painting is stolen, Alex decides to leave; then a toddler disappears and Alex’s faithful dog, Hogarth, goes missing. With fears rising for the safety of both child and hound, Alex and her best friend, John, who has been drawn into the mystery, join searchers scouring the countryside. But her attempts to unravel the McMillan family secrets have put Alex in danger, and she’s not the only one. Will the killer claim another victim? Or will the landscape reveal its mysteries to Alex in time?
©2020 Katherine Kovacic (P)2020 W F Howes
Why She Loves Him
Summary
Why She Loves Him is a collection of 21 short stories by award-winning author Wendy James. Tales of fugitive lives: dazzling portraits of women and men on the run from their present, their past, their future and from themselves.... Holding a discerning mirror to seemingly ordinary lives, James captures recurring themes of love, betrayal, passion and guilt to show just how vulnerable and intricate the human heart really is. Whether narrating from the living room of a contemporary marriage, from the wheel of a desperate getaway car or while composing an elaborate diversion in 18th-century Salzburg, James has the rare ability to wryly comment on humankind with unnerving clarity and precision.
©2009 Wendy James (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing
When the Snow Gums Dance
Summary
A gorgeous rural romance set against the steamy tropical north of Papua New Guinea and Australia's Snowy Mountains.
The legend says: if two people kiss beneath the snow gums, the result will be a love greater and more potent than any other on the face of the earth.
The beautiful Snowy Mountains are Kylie Harris' home. An expert, daring skier, Kylie once dreamed of instructing the rich and famous who come to the Victorian Alps each winter. But when tragedy strikes, she is forced to reassess her life.
In the wilds of Papua New Guinea, Kylie, now an aid worker, is reunited with the man she believes is her soul mate. But it turns out happiness is an elusive gift. Heartbroken, Kylie is convinced she will never again love so deeply.
Can she find the courage to let go of her past? From the snow-capped ridges of the high country to the tropical heat of Port Moresby, When the Snow Gums Dance is a story of courage and determination...and of a love as enduring as the land itself.
©2002 Anne McCullagh Rennie (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
Ride with the Wind
Summary
From the best-selling author of Under Southern Skies comes the story of one woman's courage in a man's world.
Joanna Kingsford is passionate about horses - and it's the world she shares with her father, champion trainer Charlie Kingsford. Jo's socialite mother, Nina, wants Joanna to pursue more ladylike interests, like modelling and finishing school. Jo can't think of anything duller.
When a tragic accident changes everything, Jo is determined to prove she has what it takes to become a champion trainer. She flees to England, where her career blossoms and she soon finds love. But what of Jo's long-held dream of following in her father's footsteps back in Australia? Can the land and the skies of home be so easily forgotten?
©1998 Anne McCullagh Rennie (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
The Mistake
Summary
Jodie Garrow is a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks when she falls pregnant. Scared, alone and desperate to make something of her life, she adopts out the baby illegally - and tells nobody. Twenty-five years on, Jodie has built a new life and a new family. But when a chance meeting brings the adoption to the notice of the authorities, Jodie becomes caught in a nationwide police investigation, becoming the centre of a media witch hunt. What happened to Jodie's baby? And where is she now? The fallout from Jodie's past puts her whole family under the microscope, and her husband and daughter must re-examine everything they believed to be true. Potent, provocative and compulsive, The Mistake cuts to the heart of what makes a family and ask us whether we can ever truly know another person.
©2012 Wendy James (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The Girl in the Painting
Summary
A young prodigy in need of family. A painting that shatters a woman’s peace. And a decades-old mystery demanding to be solved. Australia, 1906 Orphan Jane Piper is nine years old when philanthropist siblings Michael and Elizabeth Quinn take her into their home to further her schooling. The Quinns are no strangers to hardship. Having arrived in Australia as penniless immigrants, they now care for others as lost as they once were. Despite Jane’s mysterious past, her remarkable aptitude for mathematics takes her far over the next seven years, and her relationship with Elizabeth and Michael flourishes as she plays an increasingly prominent part in their business. But when Elizabeth reacts in terror to an exhibition at the local gallery, Jane realizes no one knows Elizabeth after all - not even Elizabeth herself. As the past and present converge and Elizabeth’s grasp on reality loosens, Jane sets out to unravel her story before it’s too late. From the gritty reality of the Australian goldfields to the grand institutions of Sydney, this compelling novel presents a mystery that spans continents and decades as both women finally discover a place to call home. “Combining characters that are wonderfully complex with a story spanning decades of their lives, The Girl in the Painting is a triumph of family, faith, and long-awaited forgiveness. I was swept away!” (Kristy Cambron, best-selling author of The Paris Dressmaker and the Hidden Masterpiece novels) Stand-alone novel with rich historical details Book length: 102,000 words Includes a historical note from the author Also by this author: The Woman in the Green Dress
©2021 Tea Cooper (P)2021 Thomas Nelson