The only thing harder than letting go is moving on

Australian Rural Fiction is one of the fastest growing genres in literature and is known for the way it highlights and values community spirit. It encompasses sub-genres such as contemporary, romance, suspense and historical fiction.

Pamela Cook is a writer and teacher whose love of books has taken her from a career as a secondary school English teacher to a writer of Australian Rural Fiction. Close to Home is her third novel and follows the success of Blackwattle Lake published in 2012 and Essie’s Way in December 2013.

Orphaned at thirteen, Charlie Anderson has been on her own for half her life. Not that she minds – she has her work as a vet and most days that’s enough. Most days.

But when she’s sent to a small town on the New South Wales coast to investigate a possible outbreak of the deadly Hendra virus, Charlie finds herself torn between the haunting memories of her past, her dedication to the job and her attraction to a handsome local.

Travelling to Naringup means coming face to face with what is left of her dysfunctional family – her cousin Emma, who begged Charlie not to leave all those years ago, and her aunt Hazel, who let her go without a backwards glance. But it also means relying on the kindness of strangers and, when she meets local park ranger, Joel Drummond, opening her heart to the possibility of something more . . .

As tensions in the country town rise, can Charlie reconcile with the past and find herself a new future in the town she left so long ago?

Like to know more?  Click here to read an extract.

Close to Home, by Pamela Cook, published by Hachette Australia $ 29.99