In December 1950, the worst riots Singapore has ever seen shut down the town for days, killing 18 people and wounding 173. Racial and religious tension had been simmering for months over the custody battle for wartime waif Maria Hertogh between her Malay Muslim foster mother and her Dutch-Catholic biological parents. In May 1950, Eurasian Annie Collins, following this case and filled with hope, returns to Singapore seeking her own lost baby Maria. As the time bomb ticks and Annie unravels the threads of her quest into increasingly dangerous territory, she finds strange recollections intruding, ones that have nothing to do with her own memories of her wartime experiences: disturbing visions and dreams which force her to doubt not just her past life, but her whole idea of who she truly is and even to question the search itself. Finding Maria is at once a mother's quest for her child, an unravelling mystery and a journey into suppressed memory and the nature of self-delusion.

Finding Maria

Literature & Fiction

Farnham, Dawn

Literary

Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.

In 1942, during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, two seasoned homicide detectives—one a Eurasian, caught between two worlds, and the other, a pacifist Japanese escaping dark and tragic secrets at home—are thrown together to solve a high-profile murder and come to terms with each other under the yoke of a brutal and corrupt military regime. 
Eurasian homicide detective, Martin Bach, has survived the war and the surrender: now all he has to do is survive the occupation. The Brits are locked up and his new boss at the CID is the ex-police chief of Nagasaki, enigmatic Kano Hayashi, installed by the new regime. Despite being complete strangers, the two men team up to solve the vicious murder of the young trophy wife of a wealthy old friend of the Marquis Fujimoto, Civilian Governor of Malaya—and the Emperor of Japan’s brother-in-law. The case naturally captivates the public. So, the Japanese military administration, desperate to win the hearts and minds of the local population, demands that justice at least be seen to be done...and quickly. 
To find the elusive killer, Bach and Hayashi must confront their own dark secrets, grapple with the brutal iniquities and indignities of occupation, and learn to work together while struggling to maintain their own rigorous moral codes in a world where morality is trumped by survival...and where their own lives are very much at stake.\nPraise for Tokyo Time\n"A superb series debut. Farnham excels at recreating the tensions of life under occupation, where the slightest affront to Japanese troops could result in swift execution, and smartly integrates that texture into a stirring mystery. Fans of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series will be eager for the sequel." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)\n"Japan’s fraught and ugly wartime occupation of Singapore comes alive through the discovery of a dead Eurasian woman’s body and resulting murder investigation in this gritty police procedural. International history buffs will especially enjoy the unraveling of this intricate multicultural mystery." Naomi Hirahara, author of Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning Clark and Division and Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai series\n"A thoroughly satisfying murder mystery & a fascinating portrait of a multi-racial, multi-cultural society which finds it has exchanged one set of imperial overlords for another." Shots Magazine (UK)\n"A complex police procedural set in Japanese-occupied Singapore during the Second World War. The setting makes for a fascinating police drama as the detectives from two different worlds navigate the many cultures and communities of Singapore." Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine\n"She crafts a twisting labyrinth of clues, suspects, and deception. The reader is thrown into an unfamiliar time and place of turmoil and fear. This is the beginning of a new series that blends police procedural, historical intrigue, and Asian philosophy. There’s more to Tokyo Time than noodles and Hamlet." Kings River Life Magazine

Tokyo TIme

Genre Fiction

Brash Books

Set against the backdrop of 1830s Singapore where piracy, crime, triads, and tigers are commonplace, this historical romance follows the struggle of two lovers Zhen, a Chinese coolie and triad member, and Charlotte, an 18-year-old Scots woman and sister of Singapores Head of Police. Two cultures bound together by the invisible threads of fate yet separated by cultural diversity.

The Red Thread

Fleeing a scandalous liaison with her married Chinese lover, nineteen-year-old Charlotte Macleod is pregnant and alone in 1842 Singapore. Given the choice of marriage to a man she does not love or facing loss and pain, Charlotte will find a way to make a life&#8212;until she returns to Singapore, to the man she loves, to face the hardest decision of her life.

The Shallow Seas

Young, beautiful and wealthy, widow Charlotte Macleod, leaves Batavia in the 1850s and returns to Singapore for the English education of her two young sons. She is determined not to be drawn back into a secret affair with Chinese triad-member Zhen. Drawing on the real-life historical personalities of the time, Dawn Farnham deftly mixes fact and fiction to paint a vivid portrait of mid-nineteenth century Singapore at a time when triads, piracy and crime were rife.

The Hills of Singapore (The Straits Quartet)

Set against the backdrop of 1830s Singapore where piracy, crime, triads and tigers are commonplace, this cultural romance follows the struggle of two lovers: Zhen, once the lowliest of Chinese coolies and triad member, later chosen to marry into a Peranakan family of Baba Chinese merchants; and Charlotte, an 18yearold Scots girl and sister of Singapore's Chief of Police.

The Red Thread: A Chinese Tale of Love and Fate in 1830s Singapore (The Straits Quartet)

In Volume 2 of The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is nineteen, pregnant, and alone in 1842. Through loss and pain, Charlotte will find a way to make a life with a man she does not love.

The Shallow Seas: A Tale of Two Towns, Singapore and Batavia (The Straits Quartet)

In Volume 3 of The Straits Quartet, young, beautiful and wealthy widow Charlotte Macleod leaves Batavia in the 1850s and returns to Singapore for the English education of her two young sons. She is determined not to be drawn back into a secret affair with Zhen, the married Chinese merchant, triadmember and man she loves.

The Hills of Singapore: A Landscape of Loss, Longing and Love (The Straits Quartet)

In the fourth and final volume of the The Straits Quartet, Charlotte Macleod is the English concubine. Her love affair with Zhen, wealthy Chinese merchant, is an open scandal to both the English and the Chinese communities. Singapore in 1860 is a viceridden town filled 'with the dregs of humanity from two continents.'

The English Concubine: Passion and Power in 1860s Singapore (The Straits Quartet)

EVERY DAY of the years of a murderous occupation, Simone has kept her head down, living and working in the peaceful surroundings of the Botanical Gardens ignoring the horrors that lie outside, waiting for it all to end. UNTIL TODAY, when a blue feather reminds her of lost friends and sends her on a quest which can lead them all into disaster. ******** Against the clock and with a Japanese officer on their trail, seven young women are called on to rekindle their bonds of loyalty and trust to save the child of one of their own.

Salvaged from the Fall

Penguin Random House SEA

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