Once a Hero

The surrealistic quality found in many of Sutcliffe's ( My Only Love ) novels is present once again in her latest historical set along the lush Australian coast. It's Bronte Haviland's duty, as the warden's daughter, to select a few trustworthy prisoners to work on local farms or to help build the nearby orphanage. Among the qualifying convicts is Captain Brandon Tremain, once England's most celebrated hero, now a dishonored man banished to New South Wales prison supposedly to serve out a sentence for treason and murder. But his real reason for being in New South Wales is to crush a mutiny destined to topple the British empire. After he discovers a smuggler's cache of illegal liquor and cigars, he fears Bronte and her father are involved in the insurrection. To drive her away he denies his love for her, sending her into the arms of another. Sexual tension runs high and the romance is, as always in Sutcliffe's novels, paramount. Some usage of such contemporary phrases as ``get focused'' and ``we're friends, right?'' detracts from the historical feel, but beneath the rich, sensual prose and vivid imagery, one barely notices. (June)