This is superb historical fiction written by Thomas Keneally and his daughter, Meg. It is set in 19th century Australia at Port Macquirie, New South Wales, a penal colony of convicts, soldiers and civil officers. Hugh Llewellyn Monsarrat is convicted of impersonating a barrister in Exeter, a profession beyond his reach, despite his abilities and competence in legal affairs. He manages to avoid being hanged, and is transported instead to Sydney as a convict. After crossing paths with a zealous and malicious church minister, he is located to the penal colony. He finds his indispensable skills being utilised as an administrative clerk by the humane and liberal Commandant of Port Macquirie, Major Angus Shelbourne. The Major's wife, Honora, implements a range of compassionate and progressive initiatives for women and convicts with the support of her husband. The indigenous burpai are often treated as lower than convicts, they are understandably upset at the level of exploitation and abuse of the natural environment. Partly thanks to the efforts of Honora, an uneasy truce exists with them and the colony, with the Barpai often coming to the aid of the incomers.

Major Shelbourne leaves with a party to meet an absconded convict who apparently has come across a new river with fertile territory. The fearsome and cunning Captain Diamond is left in charge, a brutal man with little in the way of humanity. A camaraderie develops between the housekeeper, Hannah Mulrooney, Irish Private, Fergal Slattery and Monsarrat over their daily ritual of tea drinking. Slattery joined the army after his family were evicted by their landowner, and slid into inevitable poverty in Ireland. Honora falls dangerously ill, and slowly deteriorates despite the ministrations of Mrs Mulrooney. Diamond displays his brutal violence with a Irish boy who absconds and turns his attention to Monsarrat, forcing him to give him detailed information on the state of Honora. This raises suspicions in Mrs Mulrooney and Monsarrat as to what lies behind Diamond's interest. Honora dies and it becomes clear that she was poisoned. The Major puts his close ally, Diamond, in charge of finding out the culprit, and he points the finger at Mrs Mulrooney. Monsarrat knows the housekeeper is innocent, and is unwilling to see her hang. Is he right that Diamond is responsible for Honora's murder? Or is someone else behind it?

The novel mixes fact and fiction in this story of life in Port Macquirie as a penal colony in 1825. The hard life of convicts is described in detail, accompanied with a social and political commentary as to how poverty and inequality often lay behind their fate. This is epitomised by Monsarrat, a man denied his career of choice whilst he observes the incompetence of actual practictioners of law, who rely on him to do their work as a gifted clerk. A few years later after the end of this novel, there are massacres of the indigenous Barpai. The horrors and privations of this period in Australian history, with the prevalence of death and injustice, is well documented in the book, as well as the compassion of some figures such as the Major and his wife, Honora. This is brilliant historical fiction that I loved reading. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Oneworld publications for an ARC.

How many more historical murder mystery series can the market sustain? Fans of books like the Shardlake series may well like this as the premise is similar though switched to a colonial Australian setting. Much lighter than Tom Keneally's usual themes, this is a romp of a read with lots of historical detail of hangings, lashings and the usual paraphernalia of the period. I'm not sure that the characters are strong enough to tempt me back...