Thought-Provoking New Novel, And All Our Yesterdays

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best book magazine in the UK“, Pieter Oomens’ And All Our Yesterdays is a thought-provoking novel about a down-on-his-luck author’s efforts to rise like a phoenix.

And All Our Yesterdays

And All Our Yesterdays, which came out on February 21, 2023, is a gripping story that is hard to put down. It takes the reader from the glitz and grit of Sydney to the rawness of the Australian Outback.

This debut novel intrigues with plots and subplots (including flashbacks to an investigation twenty years earlier) and a protagonist whose readers want to succeed, both in his attempt to resuscitate his career and to remain alive. The prose benefits from the author’s meticulous attention to detail, which comes from years of practicing law in Sydney.

And All Our Yesterdays is a significant first novel that will have readers eagerly anticipating the author’s forthcoming spy thriller, which takes its title from a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

David Kincaid

David Kincaid is introduced by Pieter Oomens. Kincaid takes the “dream job” of writing about a wealthy heir and his fatal “accident” and accepts it. After twenty years in the literary wilderness, he finally sees an opportunity to revive his bestselling author reputation. At first, it appeared to be an open and shut case, but Kincaid now realizes that something is wrong. Or worse, key witnesses have vanished…

Oomens explained how David Kincaid, the protagonist, is a writer in his forties who is riding on—or, more accurately, clinging to—a reputation he established twenty years ago with a bestseller. He is down on his luck when one of his few remaining fans asks him to look into the death of her son who fell three years earlier. This indulgence is being paid for by the fan’s billionaire husband, who assures David that the coroner was correct: It happened by chance.

David seizes the opportunity to make a quick buck, but he becomes suspicious when he is attacked by three thugs and miraculously saved. He denies the existence of miracles. David puts the pieces of the puzzle together after the assault and reveals a link between the attack and a murder. David’s investigation leads him to believe that he has identified the cause of the fall and everything that followed, but his theory is proved wrong. Then, he chooses a different route thanks to an inspired wager. David must play a double game with the woman who entered his life when the investigation began in order to solve the mystery and save his own life.

Flashbacks to events that occurred twenty years ago are used to break up the narrative. The two investigations share some similarities. The story takes place in fashionable urban areas as well as gritty inner suburbs. The reader is transported back in time to outback Australia and a notorious murder in the wake of World War II. The brashness of Sydney, the simple enchantment of its beaches, and the harsh conditions to its far west contribute to the creation of atmospherics that increase the narrative’s tension.

Pieter Oomens

Pieter Oomens was a lawyer for a many years. He joined a small law firm when he was just out of school. Over the course of several decades, he helped the firm grow into a large specialist operation with offices in three states and clients all over Australia and the world. He ended up becoming the managing partner of the company. Later, he started a management consulting firm that specialized in the legal business

Pieter has always written, not only for his work as a legal and management consultant but also to pursue his artistic passions. Short stories and children’s books were included in this writing, but only close friends and family were allowed to read them.

Pieter had no more excuses for not committing to writing fiction after deciding he had had enough of practicing law full-time. The novel And All Our Yesterdays was published as a direct consequence of this shift in direction. Pieter writes technical articles for his management consulting company, but he is increasingly concentrating on writing fiction. He is writing a spy thriller for his second book.

Outside of law and management, Pieter is mostly interested in the arts, especially classical music. He has advised other arts organizations and musicians and has served on the board of Sydney Youth Orchestras Inc., Australia’s largest organization for orchestral training. Pieter has traveled extensively, particularly throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Pieter has split his time between Sydney and London, where his two daughters have settled, since 2015. He and his wife have made the decision to make London their permanent residence, with Sydney’s beaches as their summer escape.

Additionally, Pieter’s familiar regions of Australia are featured in All Our Yesterdays: the simple charm of Sydney’s northern beaches, the glitzy eastern suburbs of Sydney, the central and far west of New South Wales, which range from lush pastureland to desert (unless there is a drought, in which case the desert is unchanged but arable land is destroyed), and the harbor city itself. While he spent part of his early childhood in the far west of his home state of New South Wales, he spent the rest of his life in Sydney’s northern beaches, also known as the “insular peninsula.” He goes to the state’s central west every year, if only to see a part of Australia that still has some traces of a simpler time.

Find more from Pieter Oomens now:

Published by Cranthorpe Millner Publishers, And All Our Yesterdays (ISBN: 978-1-80378-081-8) is published on 21st February 2023 and is available in paperback (£10.99) and Kindle (£1.99) format.

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