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  • Published: 5 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780143790310
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

The Ink Stain

Book 4, The Monsarrat Series




Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are sent to Sydney to investigate corruption that may go right to the top – the office of the Governor of NSW.

Henry Hallward, editor of the Sydney Chronicle, is a thorn in the side of the colonial administration with his agitations for greater rights for convicts and his criticism of the governor. He’s been imprisoned several times for criminal libel, and during one detention, he is shot dead.

Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are sent to investigate, but after Monsarrat meets with Colonel Duchamp, Governor Darling’s right-hand man, it becomes clear they are on their own in solving this murder.

As the duo meets other characters whose lives have touched that of brave Hallward, they realise the scope of their enquiries must be broad. There is Gerald Mobbs, editor of the Chronicle’s rival newspaper, the Colonial Flyer, which some call a mouthpiece of the administration. There is Duchamp’s sister, Henrietta, who seems to want to befriend Mrs Mulrooney, but also to have ulterior motives. There is Albert Bancroft, an éminence grise who may, or may not, own the house opposite the gaol, from where the murderous shot was fired.
The undaunted pair must sift through these suspects, aware that at any moment Duchamp could ignominiously dismiss them, leaving Hallward’s murder unsolved and the freedom of the colony’s press in grave jeopardy.

  • Published: 5 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780143790310
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

About the authors

Tom Keneally

Thomas Keneally was born in 1935 and his first novel was published in 1964. Since then he has written a considerable number of novels and non-fiction works. His novels include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Schindler's List and The People's Train. He has won the Miles Franklin Award, the Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Times Prize, the Mondello International Prize and has been made a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library, a Fellow of the American Academy, recipient of the University of California gold medal, and is now the subject of a 55 cent Australian stamp.

He has held various academic posts in the United States, but lives in Sydney.

Meg Keneally

Meg Keneally started her working life as a junior public affairs officer at the Australian Consulate-General in New York, before moving to Dublin to work as a sub-editor and freelance features writer.

On returning to Australia, she joined the Daily Telegraph as a general news reporter, covering everything from courts to crime to animals’ birthday parties at the zoo. She then joined Radio 2UE as a talkback radio producer.

In 1997 Meg co-founded a financial service public relations company, which she sold after having her first child.

For more than ten years, Margaret has worked in corporate affairs for listed financial services companies, and doubles as a part-time SCUBA diving instructor.

She lives in Sydney with her husband Craig and children Rory and Alex.

Praise for The Ink Stain

Social standing and the structures of its preservation become one of the novel’s themes. Essentially, it is a city of shadows and suggestions, with much of the action taking place in dark streets and closed rooms. Surveillance and its evasion, secrecy and suspicion, combine to create an evocative context for an absorbing narrative, with minimal violence, but with the ever-present threat of the exercise of arbitrary authority.

Michael Wilding, The Australian

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The Ink Stain book club notes

Bring Tom and Meg Keneally’s unlikely sleuths into your book club fold.