The Power Game
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  • Published: 26 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780857989437
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

The Power Game

Book Three, The Monsarrat Series

Formats & editions
Paperback
19 Mar 2019
EBook
26 Feb 2018
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Being the skipper of the cutter that carries all supplies and communications between Tasmania and Maria Island is a powerful position, and a deadly one.

When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Dieman’s Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner. But the victim’s history of blackmail prompts Monsarrat to look further afield – and not everyone is happy . . .
In this, the third in the Monsarrat series, Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs Mulrooney, are sent to remote Maria Island to solve the murder of Bart Harefield, the detested cutter skipper responsible for bringing supplies and correspondence to the island. Bart knows that knowledge is currency and he’s not shy about reading the letters he brings across …
When Harefield is murdered with an axe, blame is laid at the feet of Thomas Power, the charismatic Irish revolutionary held in detention – with a lot of privileges – on Maria Island. Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are told to solve the murder. They soon realise their real job is to tie Power neatly to the crime, so he can be hanged without inciting rebellion.
But were there others who also had reason to want to shut Harefield up?
  • Published: 26 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780857989437
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336
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About the authors

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.

portrait photo of Meg Keneally

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.

portrait photo of Tom Keneally

Praise for The Power Game

With the Monsarrat series, co-written with his eldest daughter, Meg, [Tom] Keneally has joined Kerry Greenwood in combining two well-loved fiction genres. This is not just crime, but historical crime. Showing Keneally's extensive knowledge of the convict era, this series about an 1820s Sydney ticket-of-leave man turned amateur sleuth gleefully employs a number of crime's conventions. This character-based collaboration is an energetic tale and an engaging read.

Kerryn Goldsworthy, The Sydney Morning Herald

The plotting of The Power Game is skilled and confident; the energy of the series has not flagged; a fourth book is signalled. This time the murder of the editor of the Sydney Chronicle will require Monsarrat’s skills. More adventures are in store, as well as further reckonings of the melancholy of exile and the hardness of things in this new world.

Peter Pierce, The Australian

A murder, an attempted escape by a charismatic prisoner, scapegoating and discrediting all test Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney's best detective skills and survival instincts. A thoroughly enjoyable addition to a very Australian detective series.

Stef Hoy

Gentleman ex-con Hugh Llewellyn Monsarrat and his treasured tea-making side-kick Hannah Mulrooney have been sent to a small prison island off Tasmania to investigate a murder, and thus the claustrophobia and powerlessness of incarceration in a colony at the end of the world is increased ten-fold. I really like the Monsarrats.

Viki Dun, Gleebooks Gleaner
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