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The Suitcase Baby

The heartbreaking true story of a shocking crime in 1920s Sydney

Tanya Bretherton author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Hachette Australia

Published:28th Jun '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Suitcase Baby cover

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 NED KELLY AWARD, DANGER PRIZE AND WAVERLEY LIBRARY NIB

True history that is both shocking and too real, this unforgettable tale moves at the pace of a great crime novel.


In the early hours of Saturday morning, 17 November 1923, a suitcase was found washed up on the shore of a small beach in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. What it contained - and why - would prove to be explosive.

The murdered baby in the suitcase was one of many dead infants who were turning up in the harbour, on trains and elsewhere. These innocent victims were a devastating symptom of the clash between public morality, private passion and unrelenting poverty in a fast-growing metropolis.

Police tracked down Sarah Boyd, the mother of the suitcase baby, and the complex story and subsequent murder trial of Sarah and her friend Jean Olliver became a media sensation. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton masterfully tells the engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy that still resonates through the decades.

Bretherton's unflinching fact-finding is what makes this book throb. * Australian Women's Weekly *
A pacy tale recommended for history lovers. * Law Society Journal *

ISBN: 9780733639227

Dimensions: 158mm x 236mm x 24mm

Weight: 426g

336 pages