Good As Gold

From the acclaimed author of Cooper Not Out comes a novel set in the Melbourne Goldrush era that reimagines the running of the inaugural Melbourne Cup.

Some stories are too good to be true…

It's 1861 and there are three campfires burning outside the gold-mining town of Mull Creek. At the first is Jesus Whitetree, an escaped orphan with no knowledge of his new world, not even his age or real name. He only knows he wants to find gold. Gold makes everything good.

At the second fire is the Jack Pink Gang. Jack is a little-known bushranger who is a violent criminal by day and a nervous wreck by night. His mother — a notorious felon known throughout the colony as Mother Pink — engages the services of a bush poet to get Jack’s name in the newspapers and make him feared and famous.

And at the third fire is police constable Harry Logan with Mary, a young Aboriginal girl in his custody.

With the announcement of the first Melbourne Cup, all three parties descend upon Melbourne town. The thrilling horse race offers something different for each of them — a new beginning, a chance to be written into history, or a prize bigger than they could imagine.

But only one can take the gold.

GOOD AS GOLD is a reimagining of the very first ‘race that stops a nation’, and a heart-warming story about triumph and the things that mean more than riches.