Holly Throsby Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Holly Throsby
Holly Throsby is from Sydney, Australia and is a musician, songwriter, and a novelist. She is the daughter of Margaret Throsby, a radio presenter for Australian Broadcasting Company; and John Buttsworth, an art and furniture dealer and psychiatrist.

Holly grew up in Sydney and started studying the guitar when she was eight years old. She studied classical guitar techniques and started composing when she was eleven. For secondary education, she attended Hunters Hill High School.

After she got a BA degree, major in English, from the University of Sydney, she worked at an art house video store. She also traveled overseas, living in Austin, Texas for six months.

Holly’s interests include psychology, contemporary literature, politics, and nature. She also likes cryptic crosswords, good books, dogs, and small towns. She is also a council member for the animal protection institute Voiceless.

As a musician, she has made an album for kids, released some critically acclaimed solo work, and made albums as part of the band Seeker Lover Keeper.

Holly enjoyed writing “Goodwood”, finding it to be a great combination with motherhood and pregnancy and bore no resemblance at all to songwriting. She finished her first draft in eight months, meeting her own goal of four thousand words a week.

She felt fiction gave her a lot freedom, because in song there is phrasing and melody that will constrain you and you have a restricted amount of space. With fiction, she could say whatever she wanted and was able to take her time.

Holly feels that the structure of “Goodwood” was informed by her music practice. In the book there are refrains, whether its things characters may say, or images that get repeated. She believes this comes from working with choruses that made it natural for her to come back to certain things often.

Right when characters in “Goodwood” appeared to her, many of them felt oddly real, which is something that surprised her about fiction. When she completed the book, the fact that it was over was very much so a sad thing.

She set the novel in the early nineties since she was about thirteen during that time. Holly was at the point in her life where she was working out what she did and didn’t like. She was fascinated by her stepsister, with whom she is still close to and is five years older than Holly and who Holly thought was just so totally cool. One of the two missing characters in “Goodwood”, named Rosie White, is that type of girl for Jean.

“Goodwood” was shortlisted for two Australian Book Industry Awards, an Indie Book Award, and two Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards. It was third on Dymocks’ list of the Best Books of 2016 and seventh on ABC’s The Book Club’s Top Ten. “Cedar Valley” was longlisted for a Sisters in Crime Davitt Award, an Indie Book Award, and was featured in many best books of the year lists.

Holly’s debut novel, called “Goodwood”, was released in the year 2016, and was published by Allen & Unwin Books.

“Goodwood” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2016. It was not one person that went missing; it was two. Two totally different people. One moment they were there and the next they were gone, almost like they vanished through a crack in the sky. After that happened, in a tiny town like Goodwood, where there was what Nan referred to as ‘a high density of acquaintanceship’, everything just stopped. It felt that way, anyway. The normal feeling of things just stopped. It is the type of small town where everybody knows everything about everybody else. This is a place where it is not possible to keep a secret.

A terrible thing happens in 1992, when Jean Brown is seventeen years old. Two terrible things actually. Rosie White, who is the coolest girl in the town, disappears overnight. Just a week later, Goodwood’s most popular resident, named Bart McDonald, goes on a fishing trip and never returns.

People in Goodwood die, obviously, just never like this. They do not just vanish. While the intensity of speculation about Bart and Rosie’s fates heightens, Jean, who has secrets of her own, along with the rest of the town are kept reeling.

This novel is rich in complexity and in character, its humor is both tender and droll, and is a compelling journey through a small community that has gotten torn apart by mystery and some dark rumors. The plot turns and twists to keep you engaged the entire time. Readers found this to be a charming small town cozy mystery and enjoyed getting to know each one of the different characters, each of whom are portrayed with pathos and humor. You truly feel like you get a glimpse into the inner world of even the most minor of characters.

“Cedar Valley” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2018. First day of summer 1993, two strangers show up in Cedar Valley.

One is a calm looking guy wearing a brown suit. He makes his way down main street and walks right to Cedar Valley Curios & Old Wares, setting down on the footpath, leaning silently against the big glass window for hours.

The other is Benny Miller, age 21. Right out of university, he came to Cedar Valley to find information about her mom, Vivian, who recently died. Odette Fisher, Vivian’s mysterious old friend, offers Benny her modest and pale green cottage for as long as she needs it.

Could there be any connection between the guy on the pavement and Benny’s quest to try to learn more about her mom? Cedar Valley and its inhabitants slowly but surely reveal each of their secrets.

Each one of these characters appeared to be believable and realistic, and the storylines intertwine in a quite clever way. This is a captivating and heart-warming novel with plenty of humor, which can be a bit dark at times and multiple mysteries to solve. Holly’s observation of human nature is quite keen.