May 8, 1980

9.15am.

A routine day for young Miss Sally Jones, teacher at remote Sunny Flat bush school, suddenly explodes into terrifying violence. Masked gunmen appear at the windows - Father Christmas, Daffy Duck and others, surround and seize the young teacher and her dozen stunned charges. Forced at gunpoint into a windowless van and driven for hours through the darkening bush, Sally, whose biggest worry up till now has been a possible, unwanted pregnancy, does her best to remain calm and comfort the children.

But words overheard from the cabin of the van reveal the worst: if the huge ransom isn’t delivered swiftly, she and her charges are doomed.

Sally and the petrified kids are dumped in a disused mine. Despairing at first, then drawing on the resolve and resourcefulness of country kids and a determined woman, they manage to escape. Recaptured in a scene which reveals the full extent of the kidnappers’ evil sadism, Sally realises that they must escape again - or die.

Finally, with the sadistic kidnappers closing in and nowhere to run, Sally and the children make their stand. Can Sally and her young warriors access the necessary skills and savagery to fight their would-be murderers?

Likened by several critics to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and based on a true event in Faraday, Australia, Gabrielle Lord, dubbed Australia’s ‘Queen of Crime’ presents Fortress to a new generation.

‘…effective, harrowing, intense Australian crime fiction.’ Sydney Morning Herald.