Littéraires - And All Our Yesterdays - Pieter Oomens

And All Our Yesterdays - Pieter Oomens

And All Our Yesterdays - Pieter Oomens

Par LIBRE-LIVRE , le 18 Mars 2023

Published on 21st February 2023, And All Our Yesterdays transports the reader from the glitz and grit of Sydney to the rawness of the Australian Outback in a gripping tale that is hard to put down. 

With prose that benefits from the author’s meticulous attention to detail (an attribute that comes from practising law in Sydney for many years), this debut novel intrigues with plots and subplots (including flashbacks to an investigation twenty years prior), and a protagonist who readers want to succeed, both in his attempt to resuscitate his career, and to stay alive.

Taking its title from part of a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, And All Our Yesterdays is a significant first novel that will have readers eagerly anticipating the author’s next work – a spy thriller that he’s already working on.

Synopsis:

When David Kincaid, an author down on his luck, is offered a dream assignment – to write about the death of a young man, the heir to a fortune – he can’t resist taking it. The fee is enticing, and it’s a paint-by-numbers job. The young man was high (so to speak), and he fell. It was an accident. Simple. To the police and the coroner, it was an open and shut case… but David finds that key witnesses have disappeared, or worse. And now, someone with muscle is taking an unhealthy interest in him.

David had a big reputation once; now he sees a chance to reclaim it. But to do so, he must persuade someone to give up a secret. And there’s another problem: a killer with a to-do list that has David’s name on it. To save his skin and solve the riddle of an innocent man’s death, David must trade in lies and secrets – some of them his own.

The author says:

“David Kincaid is a writer in his forties who’s riding on (or rather, clinging to) a reputation he established with a bestseller twenty years ago. Down on his luck, he is approached by one of his few remaining fans, to investigate the fatal fall of her son that occurred three years before. The fan’s tycoon husband is paying for this indulgence, though he assures David that the coroner was right: it was an accident. 

“David sees the chance for a quick buck, and takes it, but when he is attacked by three thugs and seemingly miraculously saved, he grows suspicious. He doesn’t believe in miracles. After the assault, David pieces together the facts and reveals a connection between the attack and a murder. David’s investigation leads him to believe that he has discovered the motive behind the fall and everything that followed, only to find that his theory crumbles to dust. Then, an inspired gamble leads him along another path. In solving the riddle and saving his own skin, David must play a double game with the woman who entered his life when the investigation began.

“The narrative is punctuated by flashbacks to events twenty years before. There are common threads between the two investigations. The settings for the narrative feature fashionable city locations and gritty inner suburbs. Flashbacks take the reader to the of outback Australia, and a notorious murder in the aftermath of WWII. The brashness of Sydney, the easy charm of its beaches, and the brutal conditions to its far west assist in create atmospherics that heighten the tension of the narrative. “

Published by Cranthorpe Millner Publishers,And All Our Yesterdays (ISBN: 978-1-80378-081-8) is published on 21st February 2023 and is available in paperback (£10.99) and Kindle (£1.99) format.

Waterstones | Amazon | Cranthorpe Millner

About the author:

Pieter Oomens practised law for many years. Fresh out of university, he joined a small law firm and played a central part in its growth over several decades to become a large specialist operation with offices in three states, servicing clients throughout Australia and internationally. He ultimately became the firm’s managing partner. He later established a management consultancy specialising in the business of law.

Pieter has always written, not just for the purposes of his legal and management consulting work but also to give rein to his artistic interests. This writing included short stories and children’s fiction, but those works were restricted to a readership that consisted of family and close friends.

The less said about his poetry the better. In deciding that he had had enough of full-time legal practice, Pieter had no more excuses for not committing himself to writing fiction. The immediate result of this change of direction has been a novel, And All Our Yesterdays. Pieter continues to write articles of a technical nature for his management consultancy but increasingly his focus is on writing fiction. He is working on his second novel – a spy thriller.

Pieter’s interests outside the law and management relate largely to the arts, and in particular, classical music. He has served for many years on the board of Sydney Youth Orchestras Inc. (the largest orchestral training organisation in Australia) and has advised other arts bodies and musicians. Pieter has travelled extensively, particularly in South-East Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Since 2015, Pieter has divided his time between London (where his two daughters have settled) and Sydney. He and his wife have resolved to make London their permanent home – with summers reserved for Sydney’s beaches. 

And All Our Yesterdays features parts of Australia that Pieter knows well: the northern beaches of Sydney with their easy charm, Sydney’s glitzy eastern suburbs with their comingling of old and new money, the central and far west of New South Wales which ranges from verdant pastureland to desert (unless there’s a drought in which case the desert is unchanged but arable land is stricken), and the harbour city itself. While he grew up in Sydney’s northern beaches area (the ‘insular peninsula’) part of his early childhood was spent in the far west of his home state, New South Wales. He visits the central west of the state every year if only to experience a part of Australia that still retains at least fragments of another, simpler time.

Editeur : Cranthorpe Millner Publishers

Nombre de pages : 344 pages

Prix : £10.99 

 

 

And All Our Yesterdays - Pieter Oomens

 

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