The Fossil Hunter Audiobook By Tea Cooper cover art

The Fossil Hunter

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The Fossil Hunter

By: Tea Cooper
Narrated by: Sophie Loughran
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Buried secrets. An ancient fossil. And one woman's determination to unravel a nineteenth-century mystery.

Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush with a monster at her heels—but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist who is convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that covered her property millions of years ago. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream.

Australia, 1919. Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I intent on making peace with her father and commemorating the deaths of her two younger brothers in the trenches. Her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History Museum and her brothers' favorite camping spot. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, several girls disappeared from the area. When PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, she's determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago ... and perhaps some closure on the loss of her brothers.

Weaving together these two timelines, The Fossil Keeper offers everything you love: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and startling discoveries that will keep the listener hooked.

Praise for The Fossil Hunter:

"This elegant dual narrative historical from Cooper follows a young woman as she pieces together the fate of a 19th-century paleontologist ... Cooper's confident prose and deep empathy for her characters will keep readers hooked as she unspools her intrigue-filled mystery. Historical fans will want to dig this one up."—Publishers Weekly

  • Tea Cooper is a USA TODAY bestselling and Daphne du Maurier award-winning author
  • Full-length historical mystery
  • Stand-alone novel
©2022 Tea Cooper (P)2022 Harper Muse 20th Century Amateur Sleuths Historical Mystery World Literature

Critic reviews

"Beautiful writing makes way for a beautiful story in The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper. With the same care a paleontologist unearths a fossil, Cooper has crafted a historical mystery that reveals itself layer by layer, piece by piece, and secret by secret. Highly entertaining and much recommended!"—Jenni L. Walsh, author of Becoming Bonnie and The Call of the Wrens

"This elegant dual narrative historical from Cooper (The Cartographer's Secret) follows a young woman as she pieces together the fate of a 19th-century paleontologist . . . Cooper's confident prose and deep empathy for her characters will keep readers hooked as she unspools her intrigue-filled mystery. Historical fans will want to dig this one up.'"—Publishers Weekly

"Inspired by real Victorian female fossil hunters, Cooper fills the page with strong and intriguing female characters. There's a soupçon of romance, but the real focus is on these trailblazing women. Highly recommended for all libraries."—Booklist
Engaging Dual Timeline • Historical Authenticity • Excellent Narration • Intriguing Mystery • Engaging Performance
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Girl in the Painting, also by Cooper, is an interesting story, well read. But it's tedious teen angst dragged heavily on the story, especially early on. Of course, character development is important, But Cooper provide endless detail about the girls travails, many trivial. So, after an hour or so of Fossil Hunter, I could not longer stand the tedium and gave it up. I good tough editor could significantly improve this book. Or classify it for teens.

tedious teen angst

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I had some difficulty feeling involved with this story, but I liked the premiss and stuck with it. It was past halfway before things got more interesting. The ending didn't wow me and I wasn't sure how I felt about listening to the whole story.

A pretty good listen (3 stares).

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The story told in this novel is perhaps too predictable but ultimately satisfying. The historical context certainly adds to the interest.

Satisfying

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This book should have also had the category listed of "youth and young adult", due to the story line, as well as the narration. I listened for quite a while and gave it a chance, but finally had to give up.

Not for me.

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Unlike normal, I read the description for this book prior to purchasing the audiobook and while it was true to the description it was a lot more than what I gleaned from that description. First off for the first third of the book I wasn’t entirely sur what was going on with the story, but as each chapter unfolded, I got more engrossed in the story until I found myself fully immersed in this multi-timeline tale. I’ve never read any of Tea Cooper’s books, but if they are all like The Fossil Hunter, I’d be open to reading all of them. Her ability to manage two timelines with very well-developed characters in each, not to mention weaving three story arcs between those timelines was a master stroke. As for the narrator, Sophie Loughran did an excellent job delivering the story, not to mention bringing each of the characters to life.

Excellent tale of Australian fossil hunting.

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Excellent duo timeline. The story of how a fossil discovered at London's Natural History Museum leads one woman back in time to nineteenth-century Australia and a world of scientific discovery and buried secrets.

Mystery and intrigue

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I finally became interested in the story about two thirds in. It could have been shortened and still have the important parts of the story. I did enjoy listening to the descriptions of Australia

Too Long

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This was such a good story. I enjoyed the history, the characters and the mystery woven throughout.

Thoroughly enjoyed

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This is the third Te’a Cooper's books that I have listened to. The first was 'The Woman in the Green Dress' and the second was 'The Girl in the Painting'. They were both WELL done and WELL narrated. However, this did not did not seem to have the same depth as the other two, and I, at least was not as fond of Sophie Logan‘s narration as the narrator for the previous two books. Would not recommend giving any moments of your precious life to this title or performance. Sorry.

Unusually not as good.

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I loved everything about this book except those high pitched whiny voices of the young girls.

Ignited an interest in fossils

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