Stony Creek

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Set in the rural landscape of Stony Creek New South Wales 1885 Jacki Nicholls succeeds in painting a romantic picture of rolling pastures and sheep farming around the fascinating world of horse racing.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Despised at an early age by his brother and then orphaned by the unexpected death of both parents Alex Burns is a broken man. Determined to lead a quiet productive life on the farm he has inherited when Alex meets sharp-witted and beautiful Ellen he resolves to make her his wife. Alex's upward trajectory continues with a dynamic business partnership and before long the rewards of being a racehorse owner begin to manifest. So when Alex's estranged brother appears without warning in Stony Creek and Alex is coincidentally killed in a house fire conclusions are quickly drawn and arrests swiftly made and Ellen finds herself prematurely widowed. But in one last unanticipated twist Nicholls brings back a man from Ellen's past apparently keen to relieve himself of a most remarkable confession.</span></p>