Review Rating: 5 Stars – Congratulations on your 5-star review!
In Caroline’s Locket by Peter Clarke, the year is 1851, and the place is Sydney, Australia. Joe is a policeman, which is usually a boring and mundane job arresting typical petty thieves and criminals and attending their court days until the day a locket is turned in. As a police officer, doing shady deals or letting a few laws slide was a necessary or even natural occurrence. Such was the case of the locket, as Joe got caught up in a tough situation concerning this locket. As luck would have it, Joe must leave his job and Sydney. He decides to take a chance and try his luck as a gold digger, trying to leave his past behind. Will Joe be able to find gold? What will happen to the locket? Will his past come back to haunt him?
Caroline’s Locket by Peter Clarke is a fantastically written novel about the gold rush of the mid-1800s in Sydney, Australia. The characters are well-developed, and the plot is intriguing as it covers many aspects such as love, murder, betrayal, and history, to name just a few. The main purpose, however, is to portray how life was in Australia for the gold diggers during that time. The author has marvelously described the landscape, people, and surroundings. Through many different characters, the author allows his readers to become remarkably familiar with this era by reading about how people lived in the hard Australian terrain, what they cooked, their clothing styles, and materials, how they made shelters, what they ate, and how they worked gold from the rivers and banks, all while offering page-turning entertainment for readers to enjoy.
Reviewed by Michelle Robertson for Readers’ Favorite 15 April 2024