image of person or book cover 1393199630784913846.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon The Ink Stain single work   novel   historical fiction  
Is part of The Monsarrat Series Thomas Keneally , Meg Keneally , 2016 series - author novel (number 4 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 The Ink Stain
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Henry Hallward, editor of the Sydney Chronicle, has been imprisoned for criminal libel so often he can edit the newspaper from his cell.

'While awaiting trial during one of his imprisonments, Hallward boasts of a story that will destroy several powerful people. But before he can finish it he is killed, and Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney are sent to investigate.

'After Monsarrat meets with Colonel Duchamp, the governor’s right-hand man, it is clear the duo are on their own in solving this murder. And it seems there are many who had reason to wish Hallward dead. There is Gerald Mobbs, editor of the Chronicle’s rival newspaper. There is Duchamp’s sister, Henrietta, who can’t quite hide her cunning behind her ladylike exterior. And there is Albert Bancroft, an éminence grise whose property dealings seem to put him in an ideal position to have carried out the killing.

'Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney must sift through the suspects, unravel hidden agendas and navigate shifting loyalties, aware that at any moment Duchamp could ignominiously dismiss them, leaving Hallward’s murder unsolved and the independence of the colony’s press in grave jeopardy. And when a young boy is kidnapped, it becomes clear freedom of speech may not be the only casualty.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 1393199630784913846.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 336p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 5 March 2019.

      ISBN: 9780143790303, 9780143790310

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Editor Pays with His Life Michael Wilding , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2 March 2019; (p. 20)

— Review of The Ink Stain Thomas Keneally , Meg Keneally , 2019 single work novel

'Australian crime fiction has a venerable tradition. Fergus Hume’s best-selling Melbourne murder novel, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, was published a year before the first of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories appeared in print. The appeal of those gaslight metropolitan mysteries has never wavered.' (Introduction)

Editor Pays with His Life Michael Wilding , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2 March 2019; (p. 20)

— Review of The Ink Stain Thomas Keneally , Meg Keneally , 2019 single work novel

'Australian crime fiction has a venerable tradition. Fergus Hume’s best-selling Melbourne murder novel, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, was published a year before the first of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories appeared in print. The appeal of those gaslight metropolitan mysteries has never wavered.' (Introduction)

Last amended 11 Jun 2020 12:54:20
X