"Have we become like them, Simon? Before the war I could never have condoned a killing. But tonight, I not only condoned it, I was complicit …I was helpful. What’s happened to us?"
Rural England, 1941 and Louisa Carmody is trapped in a dirty war of resistance as her country struggles under the heel of a brutal invader. In the dilapidated local village, trust is in short supply and the need to survive trumps all loyalties.
From the crumbling mansion that is her home a ragtag resistance group pits its meagre forces against the might of the invader. Hunted by the enemy and betrayed by informers paid in blood money, the resisters know they cannot win. But they can exact a bloody revenge and it is this that drives them ever harder. Gradually Louisa feels herself begin to change.
Now she, too, seeks revenge.
Resistance and Revenge is the story of a village in the grip of occupation and of those who have the courage to fight back. It is also the story of ordinary people, of people damaged by war, but determined to win back their freedom, no matter the cost.
But in this war within a war, that cost may also involve sacrificing their own humanity.
About The Author
Catherine McCullagh worked as a teacher, Army officer and editor before launching her career as a writer. She has published three non-fiction works, Willingly into the Fray, a centenary history of Australian Army nursing, War Child, a ghost-written wartime memoir, and Unconquered, which tells the stories of many of the athletes competing at the 2018 Invictus Games.
Catherine’s first historical novel, Dancing with Deception, was published in 2017 and, along with War Child, was highly commended at the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards. Her second novel, Secrets and Showgirls, was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Society of Women Writers (NSW) Book of the Year. Catherine followed these with Love and Retribution (2022) and Resistance and Revenge, which was released in May 2023.
