Helen Goltz

Miss Matilda Hayward and the Freak Show Helen Goltz

Now on exhibition for a few days only, the strange, the wonderful, sights you have never beheld before - Burnham's Freak Show. Including Mrs Anna Tufton, the Giantess.

-Brisbane Courier, 18 April, 1888.



Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career, after all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women's Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting 'Freak Show' and to interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for help to her escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But then the giantess's husband, along with the owner of the Freak Show, Mr Alfred E. Burnham, is murdered. The giantess is a likely suspect.




Matilda enlists the help of her lawyer brother, Amos, to prove the giantess is no killer and to free her from a life of exploitation. But close family friend, Detective Thomas Ashdown - who might just have feelings for Matilda despite having known her since childhood - would prefer Matilda was nowhere near his murder case. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot!