Tea Cooper's "The Fossil Hunter" is an enjoyable historical mystery set mostly in Australia in two different time periods, 1847 and 1919.

In 1847, we meet young Mellie, whose father is a criminal who was apprehended and executed, though no one has informed his daughter. Mellie is sent to doctor after falling ill with chicken pox. She's highly imaginative, prone to sleepwalking, particularly after remembering bits and snatches from a terrible encounter with one of her father's men. Her fears are magnified by a nasty cook who tells her a bunyip (a creature of indigenous legends) will eat badly behaved children, particularly young girls.
Mellie is sent to recover at the home of Anthea Winstanley, an unconventional widow who is an amateur paleontologist. Anthea is convinced she'll one day find an icthyosaur, a sea dragon, in Bow Wow Gorge, which is near her large home.
Mellie blossoms under Anthea's guidance, and develops a passion for sea dragons after finding her first fossil.

In 1919, Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale has a chance look at a fossil in the Natural History Museum in London. The fossil was found in Bow Wow Gorge near her home in Australia. This sends her on a journey to memorialize her younger brothers, who died in the War soon after signing up without their father's permission. PJ returns home to the Hunter Valley and New South Wales, with her fiancé Sam, whom she met during the war when both were ambulance drivers in France.
PJ's father is cold to her, blaming her for her brothers' deaths. PJ decides to try finding more fossils in Bow Wow Gorge. They're shocked to find a human skeleton, and PJ begins tracking down clues that might explain the human bones in the Gorge. No local wants to talk about Bow Wow Gorge, as it has a strange and dangerous reputation, tied to stories of girls disappearing from the gorge and bunyips.

Both timelines are compelling, with fascinating characters like Mellie and Anthea, and determined PJ. I loved all the early paleontological talk, and the difficulties people had of determining the age of bones (relevant to the 1919 plot).

Author Tea Cooper deftly recreates the settings, and though I have never been to Australia, could vividly picture the locations. I liked the way the author wove in actual people and incidents (e.g., Mary Anning, and the later debunked discovery of a bunyp skull in 1847) to her story of an impassioned contemporary of Anning in Anthea, while also showing the effects of war on survivors and their families through PJ.

The mystery connecting the two timelines was not that hard to deduce, but I was still thoroughly entertained by this well-researched and well characterized dual timeline story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Harper Muse for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Fossil Hunter was truly a fun dive into the historical Australia. I loved learning about the history of paleontology while also getting a beautiful mystery and driving plot. I loved the history of Womens rights woven into the story and all that we can learn from history.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys womens fiction, historical fiction, and cozy mystery’s.

This was an interesting novel. I didn't know much about dinosaur fossils and especially not ones in Australia. I love Cooper's books because I always discover some new information about Australia which I never knew. If you like her other books you will love this.

1847 and 1919 New South Wales, Australia
Beautifully told timeslip story. Very intricate mystery that unfolds slowly back and forth through time in a deep gorge where fossils were found from a time when the area had been at the bottom of the ocean. Women were restricted as to where they could go, what they could do. For a woman to be given credit for the find of a significant fossil was rare. Mellie was a very young girl in 1919, taken in by a doctor's family after an illness and her father had been taken away. She had other traumatic experiences as well. When she goes with the doctor's family to visit a family friend, she begins to learn about fossil hunting. Australia is a very wild place in the gorge, flora and fauna, and has its secrets which are unveiled little by little. It and the woman who owned it bring healing to Mellie.
Many years later PJ has her own reasons for going to the gorge. She and her friend had been ambulance drivers in the war. As the mysteries unfold in both time frames, truth is revealed that impacts both women and their families. Sometimes painful, you can't help but cheer Mellie on. Excellent read that holds your interest to the end.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
#NetGalley #TheFossilHunter #teaCooper #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #HarperMuse

This is the second book by Tea Cooper I've read, and seeing as I Loved the other book, I did have good in her being able to pull off the dual timelines. In 1847 we follow Mellie as she and a group of other girls visit amateur palaeontologist Anthea Wistanley, looking for the fossils of a sea dragon. In 1919 we follow PJ as she has just come back from the War serving as an ambulance driver. She goes learns about Wistanley's finds in the Bow Wow Gorge, where her brothers used to go fossil hunting as well, so she travels back to Australia with her fiancé to learn more about Anthea and the girls. Although I found the 1847 timeline more interesting, I was never disappointed to go back to PJ as she is a wonderful character. Mellie is written very believably written and acts her age, while also having been through a lot and willing to take responsibilities. I really enjoyed slowly uncovering the connections between the two stories and finding out how it all comes together. My only irk is that the dialogue is a bit repetitive at times, and I feel times got a bit distorted now and then (the characters would go somewhere, but when they arrive there, they only do a 5-minute thing and then it will already be getting late, and they have to go back. This happened quite a lot). I did end up having a lovely time reading this book and will certainly pick up some of Cooper's other books.

This was an amazing and atmospheric story. I enjoyed the setting of Australia and learning a bit about fossils.
Many thanks to Harper Muse and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Female fossil hunters in the Australian bush circa 1850 would have been enough for me to pick this book up. Throw in a dual timeline post WW1, a mystery in need of solving, and nods to Mary Anning and I knew this book would be a hit for me. This book has strong Kate Morton vibes, if you're a fan of hers you will likely enjoy this novel. Tea Cooper is a new to me author, but I am know on the look out for more of her novels.
I received an e-galley of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

This was a beautiful well researched book about female fossil hunters but sadly it wasn’t for me.

I wasn’t connecting with any of the characters and couldn’t fully wrap myself in their lives. Sadly I felt Sam was too toxic (kept gaslighting) PJ into everything. And PJ just along with it which made me even annoyed.

I did like the two timelines in this story but I had trouble remembering there was only 72 years difference between the two lines despite the years being mentioned in the book.

I thought the book was well researched and it was interesting learning about the Australian fossil industry back in the 1847 in an area I’m familiar with.

The Fossil Hunter is a dual timeline book, one set in 1847 and the other in the final days of WWI. In 1847 a female fossil hunter entertains some girls on holiday from school. In 1918 the war has ended and troops and support staff are headed home. PJ an ambulance driver from the war finds a fossil in a museum in London that comes from her home in Australia. Ms. Cooper has done great research and makes the reader comfortable in the setting. You feel like you are there in the gorge fossil hunting for yourself. However, I truly could have done without the later timeline. I would have been happy with just the story set in the 1800s. While the places are real, the characters and story are completely fictional. Thank you #NetGalley for allowing me to give my honest opinion on #TheFossilHunter.

I really loved the science part of this book, and the discussion of fossil hunting/preserving in the different eras. I was hopeful that I'd enjoy the rest of this book, but I just didn't. I am starting to realize that I don't actually enjoy split-timeline novels - either that or the ones I've read this year just haven't worked for me. I also really, really hated Sam and the fact that he was presented as a "great catch" despite so many red flags. There was also such a lack of clarity on so many things still at the end of the novel that even with the resolution it felt unfinished.

I did enjoy the mystery and the historical setting.

Dual Timelines of the past, country Australian setting, a mysterious disappearance, and the hunt for a ‘sea dragon’ make for a compelling historical adventure. New to me author in a favorite genre with the finding of dinosaur bones at the heart of the story had me enthusiastic to try The Fossil Hunters.

Like most dual time line stories, this book flips between the two periods in alternating sections. I enjoyed the fact that the most recent period was still a fascinating historical time. One time period is Victorian era Australia and the second is Post-WWI England and Australia.

The author infuses the past story with dramatic overtones as a young girl with chicken pox is taken in by the local doctor’s wife when she is left alone. Mellie doesn’t fit in with the genteel doctor’s daughters or their friends, but she is sent along to Aunt Anthea Winstanley for a summer holiday where Anthea introduces the lonely, picked on Mellie to the world of fossils and the fossil hunting at the Bow Wow ridge. Undercurrents between the girls and later with a situation that arises from Anthea’s past give it a mystery feel.

Meanwhile, in PJ’s time, she has been an ambulance driver in the war, fallen in love with a charming American ambulance driver, but mourns the loss of her younger brothers who died in the war and the loss of her relationship with a father who inexplicably blames her for their deaths. She ends up catching her brothers’ fossil hunting fever and follows the twisting trail in the past right back to Bow Wow ridge and its secrets.

A blend of historical fiction and mystery with a dash of romance, The Fossil Hunters was well-written, full of rich, colorful descriptions of the time and settings as well as the complex characters. I can’t exactly put my finger on the tone of the writing- not exactly atmospheric and yet, there is something that makes the reader feel something darker is being hinted at under the surface and building in the background. This sensation is a favorite feeling I have when a story builds so I was excited to get through the pages even when I felt the book got a little slow in spots. The reader is let in on the secrets of Bow Wow Ridge and Miss Baldwin who is there when PJ comes looking for answers about her brothers’ fossil find, but there was still a twist and reveal even while PJ finally gets things resolved with her family’s past and the pain in the present.

All in all, I thought the Fossil Hunters was a fab period piece and I definitely want to read more of Tea Cooper’s historicals. I enjoyed getting an Aussie author presenting some Aussie history and can definitely recommend this ‘dino’-mite book to other historical fiction fans.

I’ve been a fan of Tea Cooper’s split time fiction since first coming across her novels two years ago. Set in New South Wales, Australia, her books have an air of mystery about them that keeps readers captivated. With The Fossil Hunter, you might ask what a young orphan in 1847 has in common with a World War One nurse in 1919, but Cooper slowly reveals the connections like a paleontologist uses a brush to gently remove the dirt around a precious fossil. Nothing is straightforward or to be presumed. Revelations, circumstances, and twists mix with detailed descriptions of rural Australia combine for a compelling narrative I didn’t want to end.

Via the 1919 timeline, I began to get an idea as to what happened all those years ago, but did I want to know? I was getting to know the 1847 characters. Did I want to know their fate? The girls’ disappearance reminded me of the Australian classic Picnic at Hanging Rock, a creation Cooper later references in her notes. Whereas the girls in the older novel disappear at the geological formation in Victoria, here the girls’ seeming disappearance takes place at the intriguingly named Bow Wow Gorge. Although the name sounds fictional, I discovered – also in the author’s notes – it is a real place, and just very difficult to access due to its paleontological significance.

Even if you don’t have an interest in fossils – which I don’t – if you love historical mysteries, you’ll love this book of family adopted and biological, and histories of both the living and the dead.

Disclaimer: Although I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher, the opinions above are my own.

I enjoyed reading this historical story. This is my first book by this author which I look forward to seeing what is next for her in the future. This is a well written story that has a little bit of everything in it. It is a fast paced story that is hard to put down. It is about buried secrets and one woman who has a determination that makes this story inspirational. I enjoyed how the characters brought the story to life. They are strong characters that kept me coming back for more. They truely made the story for me. I enjoyed watching their growth throughout the story. This is a great story that I highly recommend.

With the Great War finally over, Penelope Jane, PJ, simply wants to make peace with her father and look to the future. Happenstance introduces her to fossils found in what she knew to be her younger brothers' camping spot and PJ becomes intrigued. But are the rumors that surround the place just that, or is there a dark secret hiding among the fossils?

This was an enjoyable read. It jumps between 1919 and 1847. With books like these, I always consider it a plus when I am eager to stay in both time periods. I was curious about what PJ was discovering, and I was fascinated by the narrative set in 1847.

It did feel as though the ending was a bit abrupt. Certain details are just told, and I would have liked if they had been shown a bit more. But overall, it was well paced and full of detail.

Readers interested in fossils or just historical fiction set just after the first world war will enjoy this one.

I love the historical mystery aspect and I had no idea about women paleontologists that started back at the turn of the century. I liked trying to figure out all the different characters who were plentiful but not overly so. It was on the slower side for me, however, it wasn’t unpleasant and I enjoyed the slow unfolding of the novel. Ms Coopers books just keep getting better and better in my humble opinion.

An interesting story of historical fiction that covers the lives of strong women in different time periods, the Fossil Hunter is an entertaining and immersive read. There is a mystery at the heart of the novel and Tea Cooper ties together the past and present stories throughout. I enjoyed the characters and the unique setting.

I was more than a little surprised to see that this is the first book I have read by this author! It will not be the last.

The Fossil Hunter is set in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and has dual time lines, both of them historical. The story revolves around Mellie in 1847 and PJ in 1919. Fossils and fossil hunting are the focal point of the book and there is a lot of historical fact included about palaeontology and the discovery of dinosaur bones in particular.

I really enjoyed the Australian setting. How lucky were PJ and Sam to be able to stroll down to a creek at dawn and see a platypus. I am not sure how easy that would be today. I have seen them in captivity though and they are marvellous. The fossils are still being found today of course including dinosaur bones and footprints.

Not all the bones discovered in the book are fossils and there is an intriguing mystery regarding some human bones. It was not hard to guess who they must belong to but the reasons why and how they came to be there lead to a great story. It was all very enjoyable and informative.

The Fossil Hunter is a very enjoyable historical novel.. Readers who liked Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier should enjoy this title with similar themes but with a different, interesting setting in Australia.

This wasn't what I expected; there was much more intrigue, mystery, murder and even monster lore. I was entertained even though the pacing was slow. I enjoyed the tidbits about life in Australia in the 1800s, early fossil hunting, and World War I.

The details about the setting and every day life really kept me reading this. I wasn't enamored by any of the characters; none stood out as particularly interesting.

I'd say this is great for readers of historical fiction who like darker stories and a bit of mystery.

I found this story to be so fascinating! Mellie Vale after losing her father came down with chicken pox and was taken in by the Pearsons and tease and bully by the other children. Athena took her in but shortly afterwards they had to flee Bow Wow. Then Mellie held on to the secrets until meeting Sam and Penelope seventy years later. I really enjoyed learning about fossil hunting and history through this story!