New Colonial Detective Novel BLOODY COLONIALS is Released

A new Australian murder mystery just released mixes high tension and gallows humour in a colourful and corrupt early colonial setting.

Set in a fictional penal settlement in 1810, 'Bloody Colonials' is the first novel by Sydney writer and satirist Stafford Sanders.

It introduces Irish convict detective Seamus "Shameless" Halloran - who has a problem. He's stumbled on foul play, but who can he tell? Those in authority in the struggling settlement will take no notice of a convict's accusations - and will probably try to pin it on him.

And the authority figures themselves are all suspects - ambitious, ruthless would-be big fish in a dangerously small pond.

So the sharp but shabby Irishman conscripts newly-arrived young colonial surgeon Dr Tom Quayle as his ally and respectable front for the investigation.

From here on, events well beyond their control propel the odd couple along a hazardous, hilarious path towards a chaotic conclusion.

'Bloody Colonials' brims with mystery and intrigue, action, romance, dark humour, poignancy - and barbed satire on power, pretension and the seeds of modern Australia.

Stafford, with co-conceiver Tony Latimore, first developed the story in the late 1990s - writing it as a screenplay before working it into a novel. The screenplay is available for discussion with any interested filmmakers.

Characters include an ambitious colonial governor and his vain daughter, wannabe great pastoralist couple, a sadistic and lecherous chaplain, enigmatic maidservant, embittered trooper, gambling doctor, deranged explorer and Aboriginal tracker - all with murky motives, mysterious activities, dark pasts or devious plans.

Expert readers of the manuscript have so far failed to pick the murderer before the revelation scene. Readers are invited to do their damnedest - in this setting, motives are thick on the ground.

Most of all, readers are assured of a thrilling and amusing ride.

Author Gary Bryson ('Turtle') - calls 'Bloody Colonials' "Australian convict history like you've never encountered it... [It] goes where others fear to tread, with more laughs than a Rum Corps officer counting his ill-gotten loot."

'Bloody Colonials' is published by Australian publisher A Sense of Place Publishing. http://www.asenseofplacepublishing.com

Media Inquiries: Contact asenseofplacepublishing@gmail.com Skype: +61 4786 0329 Stafford Sanders, author: t: +61 412 070 194 e: brownsand(at)tpg.com(dot)au

About The Author
'Bloody Colonials' is the first novel by Australian writer Stafford Sanders. A literature and history graduate, he's won international awards as a journalist and broadcaster, reporting from the Brazilian Amazon for US and Australian radio. Stafford has written comedy including historical satire for radio and TV, won awards as a playwright and songwriter, successfully battled Big Tobacco, and once performed on a pop show in a sailor suit. He lives in Sydney with personal details.

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