Line of Fire (Fourth Estate), by Ian Townsend

‘On the afternoon of Monday 18 May 1942, Richard Manson sat in the back of an uncovered utility truck belonging to the Japanese Navy and watched the river of dust swirl and tumble behind him.

He might have imagined, as 11-year-old boys sometimes do, that the road was moving and he was not, and that if he jumped it would carry him away to the mountains, where no one would find him. Last chance, then, for this story to end differently.’

This is the beautifully written opening to a tragic story. In May 1942, in Rabaul, five Australian civilians were taken by Japanese soldiers to a pit at the base of a volcano and executed as spies. A mother, her brother, her husband and her friend. And her 11-yearold son.

Who were these people and what had led them to this terrible end?

This is a narrative of history, military conflict and, yes, volcanology. All of it is woven together within the story of one ordinary but doomed family.