PORT Macquarie takes centre stage in “Treasure”, a new novel written by Drew Lindsay.
The fictional story is based around ex-NSW police detective Ben Hood, who becomes embroiled in a sinister world of intrigue, deceit and murder as he tries to unravel the mystery of an ancient ship, laden with stolen gold and opium, wrecked off the coast of Port Macquarie.
Although Treasure is a work of fiction, it challenges the Australian Historic Shipwrecks Act of 1976.
This piece of bureaucratic legislation automatically declares any shipwreck older than 75 years to be of “historic significance”, allowing authorised government representatives to confront the scuba diver who found such wreck and demand he/she hand over any findings.
Lindsay said that divers were left with little or no rights to salvage or to be compensated for their efforts in finding long-lost wrecks.
As a result, many divers are keeping their wreck findings secret.
Linday’s mother was a descendant of John Dick, who was born and raised in Port Macquarie as one of the Walsh family.
Lindsay’s parents were married in the historic St Thomas Church just before World War II and he was christened in the same church.
He spent every Christmas holiday in “Port” from the time he was born until his late teens, and knows the place well, although he had to re-write one scene in “Treasure” where the killer dumped a body into the Hastings River.
Lindsay recently discovered that the place he had selected for the body dumping was now residential with no access whatsoever to the river.
He and his wife spent last Valentine’s Day driving around the Hastings River to find a more suitable location to dispose of a body!
Treasure is the ninth novel in the popular Ben Hood thriller series.
The novel reached number three in the Amazon.com best selling list for Australian and Oceanian Drama within just one week of its release.
All novels are stand alone stories, based in picturesque locations around Australia.
