Rowland Sinclair

Rowland Sinclair is an artist and a gentleman. In Australia's 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet Rowland has a talent for scandal. He relies on the Sinclair fortune to indulge his artistic passions and friends; a poet, a painter and a brazen sculptress. Mounting tensions fuelled by the Great Depression take Australia to the brink of revolution, but Rowland Sinclair is indifferent to the politics… until a brutal murder exposes an extraordinary and treasonous conspiracy.

It's 1932, a time of crisis and doubt. Returning home on a luxury ocean liner after months abroad, Rowland Sinclair and his companions dine with a suffragette, a Bishop and a retired World Prophet. The Church encounters less orthodox religion in the Aquitania's chandeliered ballroom, where men of God rub shoulders with mystics in dinner suits. The elegant atmosphere on board is charged with tension, but civility prevails… until people start to die.

In early 1933, Rowland Sinclair and his companions are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic; trouble seems very distant indeed... until Harry Simpson vanishes. Croquet and pre-dinner cocktails are abandoned as Rowland begins the hunt. Stockmen, gangsters and a belligerent writer all gather to the fray, as the investigation becomes embroiled with a much darker conspiracy.

It's 1933 and Eric Campbell, the man who would be Australia's Fuehrer, is on a fascist tour of the continent seeking allegiances. Yet the Australian way of life is not undefended. The clandestine armies of the Establishment have mobilized to undermine Campbell's ambitions. But when the Establishment's man in Munich is killed, desperate measures are necessary. Rowland Sinclair must travel to Germany to defend Australian democracy from the relentless march of Fascism.

After narrowly escaping Nazi terror, Rowland Sinclair and his companions land in London, believing they are safe. But they are wrong. A bizarre murder plunges the hapless Australians into a queer world of British aristocracy, Fascist Blackshirts, illicit love, scandal and spies. A world where gentlemen are not always what they are dressed up to be…

For nearly fourteen years, Rowland has tried to forget, but now the past has returned. A newly-discovered gun casts light on a family secret long kept… a murder the Sinclairs would prefer stayed unsolved. As old wounds tear open, the dogged loyalty of Rowland's inappropriate companions is all that stands between him and the consequences of a brutal murder… one he simply failed to mention.

When Rowland Sinclair is invited to race on the Maroubra Speedway, also known as 'The Killer Track, ' he agrees without reserve. But then a journalist covering the race is found dead; an English blueblood with Black shirt affiliations is killed on the race track, and Rowland himself becomes a target. Add to the mix a strange young reporter preoccupied with black magic, a mysterious vagabond, an up-and-coming actor called Flynn and ruthless bookmakers… Rowland soon finds danger at every turn.

Volunteering his services as a pilot to fly renowned international peace advocate Egon Kisch between Fremantle and Melbourne, Rowland is unaware how hard Australia's new attorney-general will fight to keep the 'raging reporter' off Australian soil. Add a disgraced minister, an unidentified corpse and an old flame who will not be denied and once again, Rowland Sinclair stands against the unthinkable, with an artist, a poet and a brazen sculptress by his side.

Shanghai in 1935 is a twentieth-century Babylon, an expatriate playground where fortunes are made and lost, where East and West collide, and the stakes include life itself. Into this, Rowland Sinclair arrives from Sydney to represent his brother at international wool negotiations. Rowland is under strict instructions to commit to nothing... but a brutal murder makes that impossible. As suspicion falls on him, Rowland enters a desperate bid to find answers in a city as glitzy as it is dangerous, where tai-pans and tycoons rule, and politics and vice are entwined with commerce. Once again, the only people Rowland can truly trust are an artist, a poet and a free-spirited sculptress.

In fear for his life, American millionaire Daniel Cartwright changes his will, appointing his old friend Rowland Sinclair as his executor. Soon murder proves that fear well founded. When Rowland receives word of Cartwright's death, he sets out immediately for Boston, Massachusetts, to bury his friend and honour his last wishes. He is met with the outrage and anguish of Cartwright's family, who have been spurned in favour of a man they claim does not exist. Artists and gangsters, movie stars and tycoons all gather to the fray as elite society closes in to protect its own, and family secrets haunt the living. Rowland Sinclair must confront a world in which insanity is relative, greed is understood, and love is dictated; where the only people he can truly trust are an artist, a poet and a passionate sculptress.