Book 3 - Kathleen, Keeper of Secrets
Written and published by Maxwell A. Jefferies
Inspired by the True Story hehind the Bombing of Darwin 64 times in the Second World War by the Japanese.
When Australia declares war Japan in 1941, Captain Kathleen Sullivan is transferred to Darwin and is ordered underground, literally, to the concrete-walled Operations Bunker that must keep an entire frontier town alive. Her brief sounds impossible: log every drum of fuel, decipher every fragment of Morse, and hold at all costs. The Ops team serve the Major-General commanding Australia’s Northern Defence.
At Kate’s side are quick-witted Jane Clarke, who can beat a Type-X cipher rotor into submission with a lipstick tube; soft-spoken Frances Nawurla, an Aboriginal nurse who ferries morphine through shrapnel-scoured streets; and Sergeant Colin Donovan, the laconic provost whose steady presence steadies Kate’s racing pulse. Together they thread daily life between air-raid sirens, sixty-four raids in twenty-one months, while Darwin smoulders above them.
From her cramped desk Kate watches the war tilt. Gleaming B-17 and B-24 bombers thunder northward for hurried refuel, Spitfires from England are sent to protect the town, and American torpedo PT-boats with 3 supercharged V12 Packard-engines sneak out at dusk to pluck downed fliers from the Timor Sea and conduct raids. She counts every gallon they need, every casualty they bring home, and wills the numbers to balance one more night.
Hope survives in unlikely recesses. Under blackout lanterns, Kate joins the dances organised by the US airmen to the languid swing of “Tangerine”; at Berry Springs she and her work friends relax in the warm crystal-clear water, remember they are young and can still laugh; and in quiet moments Kate wonders whether her future points to Massachusetts USA or south to the farm she left behind.
Orders at last change from ‘Hold’ to ‘Strike Back,’ and the ledgers she kept become the spear-point of the first counter-raids across the Timor Strait. Her return home is celebrated by the town and includes an unexpected surprise.
Blending the little-told story of wartime Darwin with the pulse of friendship, duty, and romance, Kathleen, Keeper of Secrets shows how one woman’s meticulous pen strokes, and the allies who trust her, help turn a battered outpost from last line of defence into a springboard of hope for Australia.
Written and published by Maxwell A. Jefferies
Inspired by the True Story hehind the Bombing of Darwin 64 times in the Second World War by the Japanese.
When Australia declares war Japan in 1941, Captain Kathleen Sullivan is transferred to Darwin and is ordered underground, literally, to the concrete-walled Operations Bunker that must keep an entire frontier town alive. Her brief sounds impossible: log every drum of fuel, decipher every fragment of Morse, and hold at all costs. The Ops team serve the Major-General commanding Australia’s Northern Defence.
At Kate’s side are quick-witted Jane Clarke, who can beat a Type-X cipher rotor into submission with a lipstick tube; soft-spoken Frances Nawurla, an Aboriginal nurse who ferries morphine through shrapnel-scoured streets; and Sergeant Colin Donovan, the laconic provost whose steady presence steadies Kate’s racing pulse. Together they thread daily life between air-raid sirens, sixty-four raids in twenty-one months, while Darwin smoulders above them.
From her cramped desk Kate watches the war tilt. Gleaming B-17 and B-24 bombers thunder northward for hurried refuel, Spitfires from England are sent to protect the town, and American torpedo PT-boats with 3 supercharged V12 Packard-engines sneak out at dusk to pluck downed fliers from the Timor Sea and conduct raids. She counts every gallon they need, every casualty they bring home, and wills the numbers to balance one more night.
Hope survives in unlikely recesses. Under blackout lanterns, Kate joins the dances organised by the US airmen to the languid swing of “Tangerine”; at Berry Springs she and her work friends relax in the warm crystal-clear water, remember they are young and can still laugh; and in quiet moments Kate wonders whether her future points to Massachusetts USA or south to the farm she left behind.
Orders at last change from ‘Hold’ to ‘Strike Back,’ and the ledgers she kept become the spear-point of the first counter-raids across the Timor Strait. Her return home is celebrated by the town and includes an unexpected surprise.
Blending the little-told story of wartime Darwin with the pulse of friendship, duty, and romance, Kathleen, Keeper of Secrets shows how one woman’s meticulous pen strokes, and the allies who trust her, help turn a battered outpost from last line of defence into a springboard of hope for Australia.
RevitArt.com
& DustyBooks Publications
& DustyBooks Publications
Book 3 - Times of Change Series
Historical Fiction Novels - Events That Changed Australia
Historical Fiction Novels - Events That Changed Australia
Book 2
Book 1
See also the other books in this series
KATHLEEN, KEEPER OF SECRETS
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Website designed by Maxwell A Jefferies - Copyright 2025
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My Photography Website of Australia
Kathleen,
Keeper of Secrets
321 pages - gloss cover paperback
$ 23.00 AU
$13.00 USA
£ 9.71 UK
See Amazon for other countries
Keeper of Secrets
321 pages - gloss cover paperback
$ 23.00 AU
$13.00 USA
£ 9.71 UK
See Amazon for other countries
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