Empty Cradle

Empty Cradle

In Book 8, Penrose and Pyke must put aside their own problems in a race against the clock to rescue a kidnapped infant.

When private detective Charlie Penrose Pyke is asked to investigate the kidnapping of a child, his instinct is to refuse. As their first wedding anniversary approaches, Charlie fears for the fragile state of his wife, Grace, for whom this heart-breaking case could be the final straw. But how can he let the desperate parents down, when they have struggled for years to conceive only to have their baby snatched away? Besides, Charlie is their only hope, because the ransom note threatens their precious son’s life if they contact the police.

A family torn apart, a case taking fresh twists and turns by the hour, and only four days to identify the kidnapper. Could it possibly get any worse? And then, the unthinkable happens.

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Inspiration

Empty Cradle is set in Dunedin in January 1894.

The lovely Dunedin Botanic Garden, the oldest botanical garden in New Zealand, features in many of the scenes. As locals will see from the historical photos, the gardens were less developed than they are today, although still beautiful.

The historical photographs were sourced from the wonderful Hocken Library collection.

As shown below, the Water of Leith meanders past the gardens, then under a bridge at Dundas Street (at the bottom of the first photo), before heading through Otago University and out to sea. The Leith’s normally placid flow sits within deep banks, until the occasional floods turn it into a raging torrent. The bottom photo shows the scene from the same lookout spot in the Botanic Gardens today.

Back in the 1890s, the Leith flowed into Lake Logan, which was reclaimed to form Logan Park in the twentieth century. The cement works sat at the end of a long causeway on the far side of the lake, belching smoke from tall chimneys.

I took the final photos at the “Women of the Wheel” exhibition mounted by the Christchurch City Library, which was perfectly timed to add a little zip to my story.

As always, I’m endlessly grateful to the unsung work by libraries to maintain historical collections.