The Lodeman is the fourth book in my sea-change mystery series set in Queenscliff, Victoria. It was to have been launched in October 2021, but the launch has had to be postponed until February next year.
It’s about the death of a sea pilot. Lodeman is an old word for pilot or navigator, from the same root as lodestar, meaning a star that is steered by.
My lodeman is washed up on the shores of Port Phillip Bay.
The Port Phillip Sea Pilots have a long, honourable tradition of piloting ships through the treacherous Port Phillip heads and in to Melbourne. It seems almost a crime against nature when one of them, respected Captain Delraine, is found dead by drowning on the beach close to their operation centre. Queenscliff constable Chris Blackie would have had little to do with the investigation into Captain Delraine’s death but for the fact that a friend of his found the body.
A Detective Sergeant looking for easy answers spurs Chris Blackie to ask questions behind the sergeant’s back and to uncover corruption, greed and high-running passions before the case is solved.
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