A STRANGER IN MY STREET

Debut author Deborah Burrows has brought her skills as a historian to the fore with this meticulously researched and thoroughly entertaining novel of love and intrigue.

It’s January 1943. Australia is at war and Perth is buzzing. American troops have permanently docked in the city in what’s been called the 'American occupation', and Perth women are having the time of their lives. The Americans have money, accents like movie stars, smart tailored uniforms and good manners. What’s more, they love to dance and show a girl a good time, and young women are throwing caution to the wind and pushing social boundaries with their behaviour.

Not Meg Eaton, however. The war has brought her nothing but heartbreak, stealing her young love eighteen months ago. Until, in the middle of a Perth heat-wave, she meets her lost lover's brother, Tom – looming over a dead body in her neighbour's backyard.

Suddenly, Meg finds herself embroiled in the murder mystery, and increasingly involved with Tom Lagrange. But is he all that he seems? And what exactly is his relationship with the dead woman? The only thing she is certain of is that her life has been irrevocably changed – for better or worse.

Deborah Burrows is a lawyer and writer living in Perth, WA. She works for the Western Australia State Solicitor’s Office in the area of medical law. She also has several degrees in history, including a post-graduate degree in medical history from the University of Oxford, where her dissertation was ‘Science in the Witness Box: Expert Medical Testimony given in Criminal Poisoning Trials in England 1800-1860’ (bringing together her interest in crime, history, medicine and the legal process). This is her first novel, she is working on her second.