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Connie's secret : the true story of a shocking murder and a family mystery at a time when appearances were everything / Anne Lovell.

By: Publication details: Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2008.Description: xvii, 260 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., ports. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9781741755381 (pbk.)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 364.152 LOV 22
Summary: "On the 4th of September 1939, Connie Sommerlad was brutally butchered and her brother left for dead in their family farmhouse. It was a murder that would rock the tight-knit community of Tenterfield in rural New South Wales. A murder made more shocking when it was discovered their assailant was a local who worked for the Sommerlads. Jack Kelly, who would become the last man hanged in NSW, still struggled to explain his awful crime even as he was sentenced to death. Yet this was far from the only mystery to be exposed by Connie's tragic end. What did happen to Connie in those lost years between her move to Sydney as a young girl on the eve of womanhood and her fateful return to her hometown? What was the secret so shameful that even as Kelly stood trial for her murder the Sommerlads conspired to keep it out of the public record? Vividly evoking Australian small-town life in the months leading up to the outbreak of WW2; Connie's Secret brings to life the story of a highly respectable family desperately trying to protect their talented but wayward daughter's reputation in a time when religion, virtue and maintaining appearances held sway over every thought and deed. This compelling true story, providing a fascinating incite into another era, is skilfully told with the emotional force of a novel; yet these events really happened and their impact is still being felt by those left behind even today."--Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Jessie Street National Women's Library 364.152 LOV (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available for reference in the library and ILL 66315

"On the 4th of September 1939, Connie Sommerlad was brutally butchered and her brother left for dead in their family farmhouse. It was a murder that would rock the tight-knit community of Tenterfield in rural New South Wales. A murder made more shocking when it was discovered their assailant was a local who worked for the Sommerlads. Jack Kelly, who would become the last man hanged in NSW, still struggled to explain his awful crime even as he was sentenced to death. Yet this was far from the only mystery to be exposed by Connie's tragic end. What did happen to Connie in those lost years between her move to Sydney as a young girl on the eve of womanhood and her fateful return to her hometown? What was the secret so shameful that even as Kelly stood trial for her murder the Sommerlads conspired to keep it out of the public record? Vividly evoking Australian small-town life in the months leading up to the outbreak of WW2; Connie's Secret brings to life the story of a highly respectable family desperately trying to protect their talented but wayward daughter's reputation in a time when religion, virtue and maintaining appearances held sway over every thought and deed. This compelling true story, providing a fascinating incite into another era, is skilfully told with the emotional force of a novel; yet these events really happened and their impact is still being felt by those left behind even today."--Provided by publisher.

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