Ilsa Evans

Ilsa Evans, an Australian author, ranges across family drama, social commentary, memoir, and comic mystery. She has published sixteen titles, including Broken and the Nell Forrest Mystery sequence. The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer follows two grandmothers, a great-grandmother, a small dog, and four-year-old Avery as they travel through country Victoria. Its unconventional flight grows from concern for a child and becomes a story about competing generations, concealed histories, and difficult loyalties. Evans's catalogue combines serious social questions with wit and domestic observation. Broken and Sticks & Stones draw on her doctoral research into the long-term effects of family violence, while the Nell Forrest books use a reluctant amateur investigator in the fictional town of Majic. The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer sits between those modes, using an expansive family ensemble and comic premise to approach difficult choices. Evans lives in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, giving the novel's regional journey a setting connected to her Australian experience.