Now, down these heritage streets, mean and gracious, comes Marshall Browne, in the third of a trilogy of historical novels. The Trumpeting Angel and its predecessors are, as Browne recently stated, the result of his personal fascination with Melbourne's 1880s-90s. Unable to find any modern popular fiction about these interesting times, he set out to write his own. In this exercise he nods, generically, towards his other books, which have been thrillers, and the Ned Kelly award-winning detective novel, The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders . In The Trumpeting Angel he catches Melbourne with one foot in the 19th century and the other in the 20th.
Federation is imminent, and with the centennial anniversary year looming, the theme is timely.
Nostalgia and heritage architecture mingle in these pages with art history, fashion notes to make the costumer drool, and financial scams. Susan Fairfax is an independent woman with a background in fashion retail, and a suffragette. John Deveraux is a wealthy politician, whose past, marital and financial, is dubious. The pair suffer a fatal attraction. Around them eddy feminists, a private detective, a lesbian artist, a gun-toting assassin and others, representative of modish 1890s' and Noughties' preoccupations.