Murder often comes with an easy scapegoat... When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Diemen's Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner. Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs Mulrooney, are sent to remote Maria Island to solve the murder of corrupt tradesman Bart Harefield. They soon realise their job is to tie Irish revolutionary Thomas Power neatly to the crime, so he can be hanged without inciting rebellion. But are there others with better reasons for wanting Harefield shut up?

In an Australian penal colony at the edge of the known world, gentleman convict Hugh Monserrat 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.

Not all murder victims are mourned...

For Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women. Inmate Grace O’Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she becomes the chief suspect.

Recently arrived from Port Macquarie, ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat now lives in Parramatta with his ever-loyal Irish housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney, who has herself lived through the 1798 Irish Rebellion. Monsarrat, as an unofficial advisor on criminal and legal matters to the governor’s secretary, is charged with uncovering the truth of Church’s murder. Mrs Mulrooney accompanies him to the Female Factory, where he is taking depositions from prisoners, including Grace, and there the housekeeper strikes up friendships with certain women, which prove most intriguing.

Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney both believe that Grace is innocent, but in this they are alone, so to exonerate her they must find the murderer. Many hated Church and are relieved by his death, but who would go as far as killing him?