Frontier Books In Order

Publication Order of Frontier Books

The Frontier series is a series of historical romance novels written by the famous Australian author Peter Watt. The series is comprised of a total of 10 books published between the years 2000 and 2015. Each novel of the series depicts the masterful writing of author Peter Watt as he displays an excellent ability to make the novel interesting to read. He has researched the plots of each and every novel of the series very carefully. The main characters of the series include the members of the Macintosh and Duffy families and have a lot of hatred and bitterness towards each other. The readers get intrigued to read all the novels of the series till the end due to their strong affinity towards the characters and plots of novels.

The first novel of the Frontier series was titled ‘Cry of the Curlew’. It was published by the Pan Australia publishing house in the year 2000. The plot of this deals with the lives of Donald Macintosh, Enid Macintosh, Patrick Duffy and Tom Duffy as the main characters of the novel. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Enid Macintosh is introduced as a strong businesswoman and her success is something to be reckoned with. Her husband, Donald Macintosh likes to spend his whole day in the bushes on his beloved property named ‘Glen View’ instead of the grand mansion in Sydney. Their eldest son Angus tries to take over the sheep station and look after it instead of his father. Fiona, the sister of Angus seems to be a naive and overprotected girl. The second son of the Macintosh’s, Donald does not have any interest in running the family business and rather likes to spend time in England. Granville White is introduced as the cousin of Fiona and the nephew of Enid and Donald Macintosh. He is a ruthless businessman and tries to take the power in his own hands under the influence of the Macintosh name.

Among the Duffys, Patrick is shown as an Irish immigrant, who keeps fighting against the British establishment in the Victorian town of Ballarat in the Eureka Stockade. He dies brutally after a few years in Queensland at the hands of a mad police officer. His elder son Michael is a street fighter and an artist. His sister Kate seems to be a strong willed girl, in spite of being in trouble. The youngest of the Duffys, Tom was a bullocky, who used to follow his father and a friend named Billy on longer journeys for delivering the wagon hauls for bullocks, but now has totally transformed after the tragic death of his father. He has turned into a murdering and feared bush-ranger. Al the characters of the novel are depicted as strong and believable as each of them possesses some or the other weakness. Throughout the plot of the novel, the readers can see lust, greed, and the hunger for the overtaking of power. At the start of the novel, it is shown that Donald Macintosh does realize the chain events that he sets in motion after ordering the violent dismissal of the Nerambura tribe from his property, Glen View. The barbaric exercise of the dispersal gets witnessed by Pattrick Duffy as well as his son Tom, who are bullock teamsters.

The second novel of the Frontier series written by author Peter Watt was published under the title ‘Shadow of the Osprey’. It was released by the Transworld Publishers in the year 2000 and continued to depict the feud the two major families, the Macintoshes and the Duffys. The two families have a lot hatred and ill feelings towards each other which can be heard from the back streets and boardrooms of Sydney in the hazardous waters of the Coral Sea and the wilds in Queensland. The Macintoshes are described as Scottish and wealthy landowners whereas the Duffys are shown as poor laborers of the Irish descent. The plot of this novel deals with continuing conflict of the Duffy and Macintosh families and the their savagery is accompanied by diplomatic games and espionage. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Enid Macintosh continues to hold a bitter attitude towards the untimely deaths of her husband Donald and son Angus. As a result, the control of the business of the Macintosh family goes into the hands of Granville White, Enid’s nephew and Fiona’s husband. After seeing the unlawful attitude of Granville and his thirst for power, Fiona begins to hate him. The hatred turns into a flame when she learns that Granville is involved in the death of her beloved son David. She no longer remains a naive girl and unwittingly becomes a pawn in the revenge game played by Penelope, Granville’s sister, and Granville himself.

Michael Duffy passes himself as a mercenary for the Yankees, after not being able to recognize his true self. Kate seems to have started an independent life for herself as she operates a supply store and a bullock wagon business. In the supply store, Kate raises her child as well as the children of her deceased brother Tom. Due to this she gains a lot of respect as well as notoriety on the frontier. Along with the primary characters of the novel, the secondary characters have also given vital and subtle inputs. One of them is Morrison Mort, who is described as a former policeman and the current Captain of Osprey. He continues to become more repugnant after each and every encounter. The readers are left wondering after reading about the military flair of Morrison for combat. Another one is Uncle Max, who is a German barman. He seems to be determined to protect the junior members of the Duffys with his life. With the twisting turn events in the plot of the novel, Fiona and Michael’s son Patrick Duffy becomes yet another pawn in the power struggle of the Macintoshes. The success of the novel shows that author Peter Watt is a very generous person and is always willing to talk to like minded people. He uses his business mind very well while writing his novels, which enables him to target a large audience. After the success of the second novel of the series, author Peter Watt was encouraged and continued to write more novels in the series as well as other series.