The Rosemary is the latest book from Caroline de Costa, author of the Cass Diamond series.
Read on for an extract.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Kirwan House School was a place of harmony, until 1990, when popular senior student Jessica Vaughan disappeared without a trace. A national search followed, but Jess was never found. Her circle of seven friends was left to mourn and wonder for more than thirty years.
Now, crime writer Neroli Woodhouse uncovers a chilling link between Kirwan, a fatal accident in rural New Zealand in 1975, and the recent discovery of a young woman’s skeleton on a Far North Queensland beach.
As Neroli joins forces with police and detective Cass Diamond, shocking truths emerge. The mystery of Jess’s disappearance is about to be solved, but the answers are more startling than anyone imagined.
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EXTRACT
Chapter 1
Dear Group
I owe you all an explanation, I’ll say that at once.
I told you I would have another go at solving Jess’s case, but I didn’t tell you what I was doing. There was a purpose: I was hoping to glean more information. Deirdre, you hadn’t realised, all those years, what you saw that day. And Lan, you had kept Jessica’s secret so loyally. As befits a government minister! The first of Vietnamese origin in any Australian parliament. Miss Holt was so proud of you, a Kirwan House graduate.
And Jess would have been delighted to be at your swearing-in.
Groupies, you all must have been pissed off to read the headlines. ‘Crime-writer does her own detective work – and solves cold case.’ It’s been hard for me too, to face the truth, even as I sought it out, and I also was taken by surprise. I was always going to share all the details with you, though. And of course, plenty of real detectives worked on the case as well, over many years, and made progress.
Channel Three got the story up so quickly I was astonished, but there was a lot of archival footage they were easily able to find, of the school and the search in 1990. I’d kind of forgotten how big a case it was for them. At the time, and for years afterwards.
Like all of you, I was astounded by that graphic footage of the woman walking straight off the end of the pier and into the lake, a lake I visited just two weeks ago, and her amazing rescue by the two firemen despite her being weighted down with stones. I was even more astounded by the revelations that came out of this incident. But we will get to all that.
Of course, none of us has ever forgotten Jessica’s disappearance. Okay, her death, once it was clear she was not coming back. But no body. No motive. It haunted us for years. It’s probably kept us closer than we might have otherwise been, the seven of us who used to be eight. Sworn friends through school, uni, relationships, marriage, divorce (some of us), kids, books, PhDs (some of us), travel. Every time we’ve met, for weddings, funerals, dinners, birthdays, we’ve drunk to her memory. Imogen and Penny, you both named daughters after her. As a crime-writer I’d often thought of writing about it. Ever since I was in uni taking creative writing classes,
I’ll freely admit now. I even wonder if I became a crime-writer because of it. If I could solve fictional mysteries maybe I’d eventually manage to solve a real-life one.
And I did make starts on it. I have several chapters here in my laptop, in a folder named JESSICA???
Describing our days at school, the five years we had together when there were eight of us. Writing about Rosemary Holt, and the influence she had on our lives and the careers we’ve followed. How she made us think and justify our point of view on every topic in our senior discussion groups with her. We’ve talked about this often, as you know – how different we all might have been if we’d gone to another more conventional religion-based school like Wesley and ended up making ‘good’ marriages to stockbrokers and pastoralists, and not done much else.
I’d also written a couple of chapters about the day Jess disappeared, St Valentine’s Day 1990, and the days that followed. I think I can include them almost unchanged. They were written in the mid-1990s, which was not too long after the events they describe, so are probably more accurate on facts than new chapters written now, more than thirty years later, would be.
They include the discussions we had together with Miss Holt, to talk about Jessica.
You’ll all remember how we sat around in her office; the French doors open onto the senior girls’ garden and the fragrance from the rosemary bushes in that garden wafting in. She made tea for us all, and there was cake Miss Henry had baked. I remember I had no idea when I was seventeen what I should feel about Jessica. I only knew that an enormous part of me had suddenly gone missing. I couldn’t speak of this to any adult in my family, and I had no idea what to say to Jessica’s mum and dad. The only person I could share anything with, apart from the six of you, was Miss Holt. She seemed to be grieving as much as all of us, but to be able to shut it down when she had to behave as the headmistress. The most comforting place for me then, apart from when we were all together talking with her about Jess, was sitting holding hands, the seven of us, in a circle in that garden, next to her office, by the rosemary bushes. Something we did every day for the rest of Year 12.
I know the scent of rosemary evokes memories of that time, of those weeks after Jess disappeared, for all of us.
I think it always will.
Over the years I have, inevitably, processed my feelings about Jess more; we all have, we were getting on with the lives we had been prepared for. I came to see Jessica as a person who had a brief but happy life. But still I wanted to solve the mystery: Whatever happened to Jessica? What the hell happened to her? For a long time, I gathered newspaper and magazine reports about the case, searching for clues that others might have missed.
As a crime-writer I’ve spent a lot of time with detectives, understanding how they work, how they think, in order to create Detective Sally Holden. She’s not based on any one particular copper but has bits from many I’ve met. Every few years the media have revisited Jess’s case and asked me questions. Neroli Woodhouse must have some idea what happened to her friend, they say, she’s an internationally published crime writer with a famous female leading character. My answer: nope, no more or less an idea than anyone else in the school that day.
I have spent many hours, over more than 20 years, talking with Detective Alex Bryce, who was on the case professionally, as lead detective, from a few hours after Jess was found to be missing, up until he retired from the force in 2010, and who has retained a keen interest in it ever since. I am glad that, unlike Jess’s parents, he is still here now that we have the answers.
I’ve also spent much recent time with Detective Bill Williams, who took over from Bryce when he retired, and whose help I sought when I decided to try again to solve the mystery. I am deeply grateful to both of them for the help they have given me.
The reason I could never finish a book – until now – was simple, of course: I didn’t know the ending. I could make one up, but that would mean gluing something I knew probably wasn’t true onto a lot that was. Now that the ending is widely known, I can tell the full story. A task which also requires a look back at some of the characters, and a reappraisal of their roles and motivations. Something I won’t shirk at doing, even though much of it has been shocking to me, and to all of you.
All the time I was working, intermittently, on the following chapters, it was always for you, dear Groupies, that I was writing.
We weren’t always ‘The Group’ and ‘Groupies’. For five years, from our first days at Kirwan, we were ‘The Octet.’ Eight of us. In our attic dorm in the Annexe, in class, dancing to Madonna, in the same hockey team, the same group for charades, getting together even in the holidays for movies and sleepovers. We were ‘the Octettes’ in school concerts and camps and athletics, we were the eight who supported World Vision and helped with the dog show. There were eight of us… until suddenly there weren’t.
When Jess disappeared, we couldn’t just think of her being a temporarily-absent eighth. But we also couldn’t be seven. The septet? The septettes? Not possible. Yet we clung close to each other through that last year at Kirwan without her. We had to be something, something we could hold onto but give up, if and when Jess was returned to us. So we became ‘The Group’ and jokingly, we told ourselves, we were ‘groupies’. The rest of our year nodded and understood. The Octet was never mentioned again.
So, although this opus may turn into something publishable, and I have therefore included some information about our schooldays and the school itself, I am still writing for you, Belinda and Penny, Marcia and Deirdre and Imogen, and especially you, Lan.
Some accounts, some anecdotes, will be more obviously dedicated to some of you rather than others, but it is all of you that I am thinking of as I make my way through the story of our years at Kirwan House, and afterwards.
All of you lived through what I did and were influenced by the same events. All of you, hopefully, will get a measure of what I will call closure, although I dislike the word and how it is used today. So, all seven of us, when this is finished, will be able to sit together – somewhere with food and drink, undoubtedly – and reflect. Reflect on our lives, and on Jess’s.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caroline de Costa is an obstetrician, gynaecologist and a professor at The Cairns Institute of James Cook University in Cairns, Queensland.
As well as many works of non-fiction, she has published four crime novels in the Cass Diamond series, set in Cairns: Double Madness, Missing Pieces, Blood Sisters and Buried Secrets.
Double Madness was short-listed for the Davitt Awards of Sisters-in-Crime in 2016. Caroline has also won numerous Scarlet Stiletto awards for her crime-fiction stories in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.
(5/5)
This is a tale in a girls’ school setting reminiscent at first of Picnic at Hanging Rock with the disappearance of a popular girl, but first impressions are deceiving. There are a multitude of threads that are sewn into a quilt of many stories wrapped around a single tragedy.
The general description of girls’ school life at first seemed too detailed but revealed itself later in the story to be a necessary catalyst giving substance to the characterisations and a feeling of place essential to the unfolding story.
De Costa’s use of location to help drive the narrative creates a familiarity for those of us who have travelled the Australian East Coast. The characters are well rounded and believable which drive the engaging saga written in an informal letter format.
It is engrossing with a twist at the end that some might say is essential in the genre but this twist emerges within the framework of a story that blends a baffling mystery with a plethora of contemporary social themes. This is a well written and absorbing tale worthy of a second read to pick up on the threads at first ignored.
(4/5)
The Rosemary is a gripping read for fans of crime, thrillers, and detective fiction.
From the start, I was drawn by the way Australian crime writer Caroline De Costa tells the story through the voice of Neroli, who recalls her time at a boarding school where fellow student Jessica Vaughan mysteriously disappeared in their final year. Neroli, Jessica, and six other girls formed a close bond, and the events of that time continue to shape their lives into adulthood.
The book also reveals glimpses of other girls who went missing around the same time as Jessica. However, because of their circumstances, police did not give these cases the attention they deserved. This adds a deeper, more disturbing layer to the narrative and highlights the social inequalities that can influence the pursuit of justice.
De Costa weaves the past and present together skilfully, building tension while exploring themes of friendship, guilt, and the secrets people keep. Her writing is vivid and atmospheric, bringing both the characters and setting to life. As this was my first novel by De Costa, I was impressed by her storytelling and will certainly seek out more of her earlier work.
(3/5)
When I started The Rosemary by Carolin De Costa I was not quite sure what to make of it. An unnamed first-person narrator is writing a letter to her friends with whom she went to school. It’s an apology for solving the mystery of a beloved member of their group who disappeared while at school with them.
From the very beginning I was getting Picnic at Hanging Rock vibes. Most of the suspense in this novel comes from these references to other fiction texts, like The Collector by John Fowles. That being said, this novel was not as scary as I thought it was going to be after seeing the cover, and I was actually grateful for that.
As you read, you do want to find out what happened to Jessica, but be warned it is a very slow burn, with lots of tangents that seem irrelevant, but do matter in the end. The twists are quite clever and enjoyable for all of us who like a brain teasing mystery.
There is a small parallel story being developed as we unravel the Jessica Vaughan mystery, which ties into De Costa’s previous Cass Diamond series. It intrigued me enough to want to pick up these earlier works.
(4/5)
It would be easy to binge read this book but because of time restraints, I had to read it over three sittings.
A group of final year students at an exclusive boarders-only school in northern New South Wales are very close friends and the disappearance of one from the school sick bay on a boarders’ weekend remains a mystery for the next thirty years. Eventually one of the girls, a successful writer of murder mysteries, sets out to solve the puzzle and reveals it to her friends in the form of a written communication. At the time of the disappearance, it was extensively investigated by the police but with no result.
It is a convoluted case with a red herring or two in true Agatha Christie style but all is clear in the end. The end is entirely plausible and satisfying.
I recommend this book as a well written and entertaining read.
(1/5)
This was not the book for me….what I found was a book masquerading as a crime/mystery novel, however that is not what is delivered.
The Rosemary is really a reminiscing of the good old school days at a private girl’s school and what the student and staff did and said. Yes, there is a mystery, Jess goes missing without a trace as the group of eight start Year 12. Yes, there is an investigation but that seems to be in the background. The main focal point is just the reminiscing.
I’m not interested in being taught Latin, or the “remember you said” and “remember we went”, not to mention the other story running parallel that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Unimportant information overshadowing what could have been a great story.
Now I know a background needs to be established to know how things played out, but out of a 269 page book, the ‘crime’ genre part really didn’t start until around page 200.
This book really disappointed me even though it had lots of potential and I struggled to finish it, which makes it very hard to me to recommend it to other readers.
(3/5)
I found the first quarter of the story slow and a bit boring.
The eight girls who meet in a Year 7 at Kirwan Private School form a strong bond with each other and also their teachers, that continues through till their final year. Much in the book is given to the relationship between students and teachers reminding myself of my own secondary schooling. In the final year at school, Year 12, one of these girls, Jess, disappears without a trace. The story from this stage becomes very interesting. Police and many people search for her over many months and even years without any clue.
The remainder of girls graduate and continue on their career paths but, the mystery of Jess’s disappearance remains in many minds for a long time, especially the girls themselves. One of the friends who, by this time, has made a name for herself as an author decides to have another attempt at solving the mystery even, after such a long time and so the story starts to properly unfold. I really enjoyed the book from that point onwards.
(3/5)
The Rosemary is written in a conversational tone, as crime writer Neroli Woodhouse addresses herself to her fellow schoolmates from Kirwan House School, the boarding school she attended in the early 90s. This tone – the rambling “remember when” style – was not my favourite, and is probably the main reason this book wasn’t for me.
I expected the story of the other disappearance told alongside the main narrative to have more relevance to the plot – its role as a very minimal side-plot almost took away from the point of its inclusion, I felt. However, the mystery itself of the disappearing classmate was well told, and the 90s school setting was very convincing, it certainly brought back memories for me.
(4/5)
Caroline de Costa’s The Rosemary is a compelling read that starts in a progressive boarding school for girls. These girls are provided with an excellent education; they are encouraged to learn the classics and to think independently. The book is about friendships that are forever impacted by a ‘disappearing’ schoolgirl. Despite hard work by police and others there is no clue to what happened to Jess.
Over decades, her friends try find out more. One of these friends, Neroli (a crime writer), slowly uncovers information that helps solve the mystery. The ending is shocking. Throughout the book, the investigation into another missing girl provides contrast to the search for Jess.
The Rosemary is a good read and I found myself thinking about the book long after I had finished it.
(3/5)
The Rosemary by Caroline de Costa presents an intriguing concept, weaving together a decades-old disappearance with the discovery of a mysterious skeleton. On paper, it has all the elements of a compelling crime thriller. However, I personally found it difficult to get into. The pacing felt slow at the beginning, and the way the story moved between timelines and perspectives didn’t immediately draw me in.
It’s also not the style of book I typically read, and that definitely affected my experience. The narrative leans more toward a procedural, detail-driven approach, and while some readers may enjoy that, it made it harder for me to feel fully invested in the characters or the unfolding mystery. I appreciated the premise and the effort to build atmosphere, but overall I struggled to connect with the story and couldn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.
Readers who like layered, slower-burn crime fiction might get more out of it, but for me, it simply wasn’t the right match
(4/5)
Set mainly in an idyllic school in rural New South Wales, The Rosemary is a beautifully written (and edited!) novel. As someone who was at high school in the 1980s (and therefore one of their peers) the cultural references are very familiar. It is also a very intimate novel. It mainly takes the form of a letter for the narrator (a former student) to her fellow students so you feel you are part of ‘their gang’.
However, while I loved the reminiscences, this part of the book seems a little overplayed. A touch indulgent and over-sentimental, as the rose-coloured spectacles she provides us took up a large part of the book (almost a quarter). The back cover blurb definitely conveys a thriller but there isn’t the pace we’d expect of a thriller and this first section only slows down what pace there is.
I enjoyed the different locations that the book takes us to and the author gives us a great sense of place wherever we are. She also provides us with the themes of innocence and experience, friendship and trust (and broken trust). There is also the theme of privilege/class. These elements of the book were very readable.
(2/5)
Will appeal to those who enjoy a locked room mystery!
The whole school community is rocked by the disappearance of an It Girl. 30 years on The Groupies, her 7 dorm mates & best friends, are still looking for answers.
Always cool seeing places you know well in print – the Hunter region of NSW. I enjoyed the locked room aspect of the story but thought “whodunnit” was pretty obvious and the motivation was trite.
Really struggled with the first person narration by Neroli in the form of an one sided Group Chat. With no input from the six other protagonists it felt like a repetitive info dump.
A lover of police procedurals & mysteries in general, I felt there was some glaringly obvious oversights by the police, even back in 1990, and it was wholly unrealistic for the crime writer to solve the case.
Wasn’t surprised this was initially a short story. It enabled a very poor “crossover” between this book and the author’s Cass Diamond series.
This was an engaging read, despite the unusual point of view and largely unrelated parallel storyline. Caroline de Costa’s narrator Neroli Woodhouse directly addresses her old school friends, beginning with: “Dear Group, I owe you all…”
This use of second person to tell most of the story – parts of Huckleberry Finn come to mind – is compelling. In this novel the reader becomes one of the eight girls that made up Jessica Vaughan’s friendship group.
In 1990, Jess disappears from her well-off boarding school. An exhaustive search yields nothing. Her cold case is reopened around thirty years later when Neroli stumbles on new evidence that could bring light to the case. Jess’s story is juxtaposed with snippets detailing the disappearance of Shaelene Witty, a young Indigenous girl whose tragic life is the opposite of Jess’s, despite both lives ending in disappearance. While Jess’s story is riveting, Shaelene’s is less so, providing both diversion and a didactic element, but not plot development.
Overall, I enjoyed the strong story centred around Jess and would recommend The Rosemary to crime fiction fans.
The Rosemary by Caroline de Costa is written in the form of updates from the main character, Neroli, to the rest of the group. These updates become the backbone of the story. The ‘group’ are 8 close knit friends who attend boarding school at Kirwan House. These 8 girls share their lives on their journey, not only through their school years, but their journey to womanhood. Only one day one of their group mysteriously disappears from school!
Despite thorough police investigations, no trace can be found of their friend. So eventually the case is closed! Even though the rest of the group has kept in touch, thirty or so years later, it’s Neroli, now a successful crime novelist, who decides to take up the case again and reinvestigate to see if she can uncover anything new. Enter into the plot the skeleton of a young girl, found in another state, a couple of police officers from that state and together, with Neroli, they dig deeper into past events that eventually solve the mystery of the friend’s disappearance .
This book was a fun experience. I particularly enjoyed Caroline’s easy to read style, and also the format of writing to her friends in the group in the form of updates. This approach is entertaining and different.
I have to admit that I have not previously read a novel with a writing style similar to that of The Rosemary, but it grabbed me from the very first page.
A letter to a group of long-time friends which quickly summarised their current occupation and lifestyle and why the contact was made – the solving of the Cold Case Missing Person/Suspected Murder of one of the group, before moving on to reminiscing about how they had all formed such a solid friendship.
The description of Boarding School graphically reminded me of the year my daughters started boarding school and hooked me in to continue reading.
The crime solving activities and solutions were interesting especially the intertwining of another Missing Person case and the differences in the manner in which both cases were tackled. I was intrigued as to why the second case was occasionally mentioned.
I appreciated the unique writing style, in which all members of the group were made aware of the way in which the crime was solved.
I would certainly read another of Caroline De Costa’s novels
The Rosemary is a mystery set in a New South Wales boarding school in the 1990’s addressing the disappearance of senior students Jessica Vaughan. The investigation goes nowhere with the unsolved crime remaining until thirty years later when a schoolfriend becomes a crime writer and is determined to follow up on the case.
The premise intrigued me to pick up De Costa’s book, but I found the first-person recount approach awkward, as it wasn’t balanced with the usual amount of dialogue expected in a fictional work.
De Costa offers lots of detail of 1990’s life in the Kirwan House School, to the extent the reader is champing at the bit for the action to take off. Once the disappearance is discovered and the investigation ensues the story moves forward slowly as she weaves in another disappearance in Queensland to highlight the different treatment of police cases of the time dependent on race.
If your preference is for a slow reveal with lots of incidental detail you will find this book more to your liking. I found the story overly slow paced and the recount style difficult to follow but am curious to track down some of De Costa’s other works such as her Cass Diamond Crime Series, of which the first was shortlisted for the Davitt Award.
The Rosemary is a crime mystery story set in a boarding school in rural New South Wales. The story covers two timelines; the 1990s with the disappearance of one of the popular girls from the school, and a few decades later when her best friend (a successful crime and mystery writer) sets out to solve her cold case. This book also follows the disappearance of Shaelene Witty, an Indigenous girl who is connected to de Costa’s ‘Cass Diamond’ series.
I enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of the Australian outback, and loved the interweaving and mystery structure. It was a compelling mystery and I would absolutely recommended for readers who love Australian crime fiction.
For fans of Caroline De Costa, The Rosemary does not disappoint! A stand alone novel, it is written in a different approach to her previous Cass Diamond series set in Cairns.
In 1990, a senior student Jessica Vaughan disappears without a trace from Kirwan House, an elite boarding school in rural NSW. The story is told present day through a series of reminiscences by one of Jessicas closest school friends – Neroli Woodhouse (a fictional crime writer) who stumbles on a clue that could solve the 30 year old mystery.
In a tandem story line, another young girl – Shaelene Witty also goes missing from Northern NSW around the same time as Jessica. Her body is discovered thousands of kilometres away buried on a beach near Port Douglas QLD. The case is taken on by local Cairns Detective Cass Diamond, who has relatives living near where Shaelene went missing.
The author highlights the stark differences and inequality between how the two cases are handled (a white privileged girl and a First Nations girl). Although I could not put this book down and in fact lost a whole weekend reading it, I found it frustrating how the chapters kept flitting between the two story lines.
I think Shaelene Witty deserves to have her story told properly and feel the author could have easily written it in the Cass Diamond series knowing the perpetrator would be brough to justice.
(3/5)
This book was an interesting read. It compares how a person’s place in the community determines the response given in their disappearance, and not every life comes with equal standing. Also, grief can bring people together and bond them for life.
There was enough suspense to keep me guessing who did it until the end.