Book description
Alan Duncan returns to his family home in Australia after the war and
several years of study in England. But his homecoming is marred by the
mysterious suicide of his parents' quiet and reliable parlour-maid. A
search through her belongings in search of clues leads to heartbreaking
revelations about the woman's identity, the death of Alan's brother
Bill, and, above all, the disappearance of his brother's fiancee, Janet.
Nevil Shute Norway was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After
attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied
Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an
aeronautical engineer and published his first novel,
Marazan
, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to
have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After
the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived
until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include
Pied Piper
(1942), No Highway
(1948), A Town Like Alice
(1950) and On the Beach
(1957).
