A short story from the national bestselling author of The Russian Concubine . . .
It is 1942, and the war has come to Darwin, Australia. Japanese planes bring fear to the streets as air raids spit death from the skies. The best way to survive is to keep your head down, but Hatti Hoot—red-haired and six foot tall—doesn’t exactly blend in with the crowd.
When Hatti spots two men looting a jewelry shop during one of the raids, she intervenes and scares them off. The diamonds they had taken lay abandoned in the street, and Hatti is tempted. So is Maya, a willful young Malayan girl who also spots the treasure in the dust. But before either can react, a police officer steps in, accusing them of theft. Suddenly everything starts to go wildly wrong . . .
Kate Furnivall was raised in Penarth, a small seaside town in Wales. Her mother, whose own childhood was spent in Russia, China and India, discovered at an early age that the world around us is so volatile, that the only things of true value are those inside your head and your heart. These values Kate explores in The Russian Concubine.
Kate went to London University where she studied English and from there she went into publishing, writing material for a series of books on the canals of Britain. Then into advertising where she met her future husband, Norman. She travelled widely, giving her an insight into how different cultures function which was to prove invaluable when writing The Russian Concubine.
It was when her mother died in 2000 that Kate decided to write a book inspired by her mother's story. The Russian Concubine contains fictional characters and events, but Kate made use of the extraordinary situation that was her mother's childhood experience - that of two White Russian refugees, a mother and daughter, stuck without money or papers in an International Settlement in China.
OK, so I don't really have much luck with short stories, but honestly, my only thought after finishing this one was, "That's it?!" Just read her full-length novels instead.