All that Glitters is the fifth in the Heart of Stone series by Shelagh Mazey, one of my favourite authors, who has created a series of deeply researched, fascinating, memorable sagas, using settings which seem to span the world.

So let’s see where Mazey takes her astonishing cast of characters this time:

Aurora Dryer is the adopted daughter of Lord and Lady Dryer of Alvington Manor. She has fallen for the prospector Rhys Thomas on a short-lived trip to Australia. Her challenge is to persuade her parents to let her follow her heart and return to the gold mining town of Bendigo to see if the magic can be re-captured.

Lucy Seymour, the young widow of murdered Ashleigh Seymour, makes the decision to travel with her small son Frankie to the diamond mines of South Africa to visit her brother-in-law, Rupert. Enticed by the offer of marriage, Lucy knows that she and her son have a long sea voyage and epic trek overland ahead of them, but she wishes to escape her uneventful provincial life with her in-laws.

Both women are yearning for excitement, but their journeys are destined to take different paths to those they had envisaged. Their story will take them to the gold and diamond mines of Australia and South Africa. In the pursuit of love they will face many adventures including a shipwreck, black magic, vendettas, arson, kidnap and extortion.

The novel, set in the second half of the nineteenth century, starts with a prologue, which is always a good way to bring the reader up to date.  This time  Shelagh Mazey uses   ‘where we are in the series’ letters, a device used from time to time, to draw the threads of the novel together. Clever.  And within the first chapter there is talk of smallpox, and vaccinations which makes this historical novel immediately  relatable – again –  clever.

Swiftly flowing, always page turning,  Mazey writes with compassion, and gentleness. Whenever I read one of her novels I learn about a country, and a time set back in the annals of history. All that Glitters is no exception,   Mazey  transports us from Portland and its rich history, to South Africa, by sea, to Australia, too. I can see the bright light, and smell, almost taste the dust of  these far away countries,  as we follow all that the characters endure, all their trials and tribulations. Do they overcome them? Ah, read and see.

Why travel in their footsteps, when you can buy this book and take the journey in the comfort of your armchair, and what’s more, travel back in time while you’re about it?

Another triumph for Shelagh Mazey. Bravo.

All that Glitters is available in eBook and paperback.(though the pb is held up slightly owing to lockdown.)