Tom Keneally won the 1982 Booker Prize with Schindler's Ark, later made into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. His novels The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest and Confederates were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

His daughter Meg Keneally has been a journalist and radio producer, and has spent more than ten years working in corporate affairs for listed financial services companies.

Both live in Australia.

A fast-paced, witty and gripping historical crime opener to The Monsarrat Series from Tom Keneally and his eldest daughter Meg

In an Australian penal colony at the edge of the known world, gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat has risen from convicted forger to trusted clerk of the settlement's commandant.

Not long after the commandant heads off in search of a rumoured river, his beautiful wife Honora falls ill with a sickness the doctor is unable to identify. And when Honora dies, it becomes clear she has been slowly poisoned.

Monsarrat and perceptive housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney feel suspicious as regards the motives of Captain Diamond, the commandant's second-in-command. In a trice Diamond has Mrs Mulrooney arrested for murder. To save his new friend from the hangman's noose, Monsarrat must go all out to unmask the real killer.