Fools Gold

- Blurb -

When Louis Benoit disappears from the gold fields Hokitika, leaving his wife Emelia pregnant, everyone thinks he has been murdered for the gold he was carrying home from a packing trip, or run off with his ex-girlfriend, the prostitute Donna. However, he is actually intercepted by his business partner George and an opportunist Donna, and persuaded to accompany them to finance a secret mission in search of the large amount of gold lost in 1868. The 'General Grant', carrying the gold en route from Melbourne to London was wreched in a cave on the remote west coast of the Auckland Islands south of New Zealand. Joe, George's brother sailed on the 'General Grant's' ill-fated last voyage and was able to instigate the historic wrecking, but the recovery of the gold is not quite as straightforward as planned, in fact he believes that it is cursed. Donna, however, does not believe in curses; she thinks all her dreams have come true when she gets Louis all to herself. This historical novel will keep readers guessing while imparting interesting factual and well-researched information on the final voyage of the General Grant, her survivors and the bleak Auckland Islands, Stewart Island, early Dunedin and France. Beverley Bassett Broad lives on Banks Peninsula where she and her husband set up an avian quarantine and hatchery and became pioneers in the ostrich industry.