Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Once again Fiona McArthur has her readers visiting the town of Lightning Ridge. This was also the setting for her book, The Opal Miner’s Daughter, number two in her Aussie Outback Medical Romance Series. Her latest book, The Lightning Ridge Ladies, is the fourteenth book in that series. As is her custom, Fiona McArthur has once again woven her extensive medical expertise into a story that celebrates the strength of women, families, and rural communities.
Dr. Bella Grey is a city girl who finds herself about to enter the outback township of Lightning Ridge with an emu speeding along the road beside her. She has come to this town to step into the shoes of her brother Conrad who, with his new wife Riley, is off to a conference and then their belated honeymoon.
But Bella is also on a mission to discover what really happened to her twin brother, William. A note found after he disappeared suggested that he might have committed suicide, but no body was ever found. Bella needs to know what happened and she is determined to find out.
The title of the book is about the ladies in this town, not just Bella. She soon finds that, by joining with these women weekly, she can let the constant gnaw of questions surrounding her brother’s disappearance float away a little, in the buzz of interesting feminine conversation bolstered by a glass of wine and fabulous food.
The novel reveals the intertwining narrative through chapters about the lives of three of the main characters. As expected, there is the young doctor, Bella, determined to badger anyone she believes can help her understand what had happened to her twin, believed to have been in this opal town before his suicide note was found just over two years ago. There is also the man in black, the recluse who Bella is sure knows something important; and there is Meeska, owner of an opal business, whose pregnant, sight-impaired sister has come to The Ridge after kicking out the father of her unborn child.
Yes, this is a love story, but not just the traditional boy meets girl. This story has tension, danger, sorrow, elation and the warm feeling of being included and loved. This is also a story of healing, from actions in the past and feelings of guilt. It is a story which promotes the idea that it is better to share our feelings than keep them bottled up inside. It highlights the power and strength in women of all ages which the author loves to promote.
This is an engaging story which foregrounds the location. Lightning Ridge is not everyone’s destination. Most would believe it to be a town where people could become invisible, probably the destination for those who do not always work within the law, a maybe dangerous place, a place where miners jealously guard what is theirs. There is a lovely comparison provided between two mining towns, The Ridge and Coober Pedy. McArthur includes some beautiful similes in her stories and builds tension by asking several provocative questions which reveal their answers as more information is allowed to leak out.
As a former midwife, Fiona McArthur’s stories include medical situations. There has already been published a series about midwives – The Desert Midwife, Midwife in the Jungle, Midwife on the Orient Express, Aussie Midwives. There is also The Aussie Doctor Series, all with a handsome hunk on the cover. Each of her books takes the reader to beautiful places while discovering that the world is indeed filled with wonderful people and endless possibilities.
I thoroughly enjoy reading about these wonderful everyday people and the places they live in, especially those set in Australia.
The Lightning Ridge Ladies
(2025)
by Fiona McArthur
Penguin Random House Australia
ISBN:978-1-76135-011-5
$34.99; 384pp