The Fossil Hunter

June 20, 2022
This elegant dual narrative historical from Cooper (The Cartographer’s Secret) follows a young woman as she pieces together the fate of a 19th-century paleontologist. In 1847 Wollombi, Australia, 12-year-old Mellie Vale is put in the care of Dr. Pearson and his wife, Edna, while Mellie recovers from chicken pox and her father awaits sentencing for his murder conviction. At Edna’s behest, Mellie accompanies Edna’s two daughters for an extended stay in nearby Bow Wow with Anthea Winstanley, a paleontologist and friend of the Pearsons. Mellie takes to fossil hunting, but becomes spooked by the arrival of a London gentleman with shadowy motives angling to buy Winstanley’s land and telling stories about bunyips, the mythical amphibious creatures Mellie believes responsible for her ill-remembered trauma. In 1919 London, P.J. Martindale visits the Natural History Museum and finds a fossil with a connection to her hometown of Wollombi. Eager to outrun her grief over her brothers’ deaths in WWI, she returns to Australia and visits the Bow Wow Gorge, where her discovery of human remains leads her to investigate what became of a paleontologist rumored to have disappeared there decades earlier. Cooper’s confident prose and deep empathy for her characters will keep readers hooked as she unspools her intrigue-filled mystery. Historical fans will want to dig this one up.

July 1, 2022
Mellie Vale has not had an easy life. An orphan at 12 in Wollombi, Australia in 1847, the local doctor takes over her guardianship. She is introduced to paleontologist Anthea Winstanley, who she visits in Bow Wow Gorge with some family friends. Anthea, certain that the gorge on her property holds proof that this part of Australia was once covered by water, wants the girls' help to uncover more fossils. Mellie is soon as interested in fossils as Anthea is, but an unexpected visitor threatens the new peace Mellie has found. Seventy years later, WWI has ended and Penelope Jane Martindale is eager to see her home in Wollombi again after serving as an ambulance driver. While on a stopover in London, she discovers fossils in a museum with a link to her home. Once home, PJ throws herself into solving the mystery behind the fossils. Inspired by real Victorian female fossil hunters, Cooper fills the page with strong and intriguing female characters. There's a soup�on of romance, but the real focus is on these trailblazing women. Highly recommended for all libraries.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.