Miles Off Course (44 page)

The Cassidy brothers were finally apprehended in Victoria. To this day, the proceeds of the Eugowra Stage Coach robbery, otherwise known as Glover’s gold, have not been
found.

In 1933 Endeavour Press published
Bring the Monkey, a
light novel by Miles Franklin, illustrated by Norman Lindsay.

Acknowledgments

Miles off Course
may have been a description rather than a title, if not for the following people who have kept me from becoming hopelessly lost in the literary
wilderness. I am deeply and sincerely grateful.

My husband Michael, who can’t always see the road, but whose internal compass is pretty true. Who, in the beginning, drew me a map of the 1930s and let me go.

My boys, Edmund and Atticus, who never stay on the path, who wander off to find places that no-one else knows and who are fearless in their exploration of this world.

Leith Henry, my life-long friend, whom I call when I have no idea where I’m going. Whose support from the beginning has made me much braver than I might otherwise have been.

My father who will still drive out in the middle of the night to pick me up, if I find myself stranded.

My extraordinary sisters, Devini and Nilukshi, who long ago set the pace.

The Greens—John, Alison, Jenny and Martin—and the team at Pantera Press. I would need to write a hundred books to even start to acknowledge the support, the generosity, the faith and
warmth of my publishers.

Sue Bulger, and Aunty Flo Grant who shared their language, their insight and their humour to help me breathe life into Harry Simpson, a Wiradgerie man. Mandaang guwu.

Michael Schulz, my friend and colleague, a German Irish Australian, and a gentleman.

Laurie Keenan, master of all trades, statesman and local hero, who despite how I may have used his name in this book, probably hasn’t shot anyone… yet anyway.

Rex O’Brien, Shamus O’Brien, and Petrina Walker, who patiently answered what must have seemed quite impertinent questions about what one actually does with cattle in the High
Country.

My dear friends, the Kynastons, the Wainwrights, the Marshalls, the Henries, Wallace Fernandes, Alastair Blanshard, Dick Thompson, Rebecca Crandell, Angela Savage, Lesley Bouquet and Cheryl
Bousfield, who are an infinitely rich source of advice, support and (perhaps inadvertently) material.

My colleagues at the Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authority who have tolerated a fiction writer in their midst without undue alarm.

My editor, Deonie Fiford, with whom it is a pleasure and a comfort to work, who doesn’t miss anything, who can see the way I wish to go and keeps me on that path.

Luke Causby who wraps my words in the perfect image and who takes author requests like “please insert a monkey” in his stride.

Desanka Vukelich, Graeme Jones, Karen Young and all the extraordinary professionals who bring their talents to the production of my books.

Harry Hill, John Merritt, Klaus Hueneke, Colin Hoard, John Winterbottom and all the local historians of the South West Slopes who have preserved a past which might otherwise have simply slipped
from living memory. The people of Batlow, Adelong, Tumut and Tumbarumba who are my neighbours, my friends and, quite often, my inspiration.

And finally, the greater community of reviewers, bloggers, booksellers and especially readers who have made it possible for me to be writer. Thank you.

For bookclub questions, opportunities to host the author at your bookclub (via Skype)…

And more…

Please visit
www.PanteraPress.com

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE ROWLAND SINCLAIR SERIES

“... An elusive killer, a charming sleuth and a historical setting… glossy, original and appealingly
Australia.”—
WOMEN’S WEEKLY

“… continues the sparkling crime series that began with
A Few Right Thinking Men
... There’s an
Evelyn-Waugh-meets-Agatha-Christie feel about this series, though it perhaps bears closer comparison to the celebrated contemporary author of period crime, the Russian Boris Akunin”—
THE AGE

“A historical crime series featuring a wiley detective makes us think of Miss Marple or Inspector Poirot...”
—
ABC RADIO NATIONAL’S THE BOOK SHOW

“… deserves to be both read and remembered”
—
AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

“Fans of classic crime fiction will also be pleased to learn that, with her amateur detective Rowland Sinclair, she has brought back
the gentleman sleuth but with a difference: he’s a larrikin Lord Peter Wimsey, with a penchant for living la vie de boheme.”—
SUN HERALD

“… for those who love a good murder mystery to solve”
—
CENTRAL COAST ADVOCATE

“This is a very entertaining and lovely book… People who love Kerry Greenwood’s books featuring Phryne Fisher, the very
wealthy flapper in 1928 in Melbourne, well, Rowland is your equivalent and these books are very reminiscent… that same attention to the history… that same attention to the luxury and
having a central character who has money and is able to go anywhere in the world as a consequence… and we’re in these extraordinary places… I was interested in the colour,
movement, history, the sense of Sydney in the 1930s, the sense of place… that is what I loved…”—
ABC RADIO

ABOUT SULARI GENTILL

Sulari set out to study astrophysics, ended up graduating in law, and later abandoned her legal career to write books instead of contracts. When the mood takes her, she paints,
although she maintains that she does so only well enough to know that she should write. She grows French Black Truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW, which she shares
with her young family and several animals (the farm not the truffles). Sulari was shortlisted for Best First Book in South East Asia and Pacific for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011. She
was recently offered a Varuna Fellowship. She was commended in the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ 2008 Jim Hamilton Award, longlisted for the Hachette/Queensland Writers’ Centre
Australian Manuscript Development Program for fiction writers and shortlisted for the 2008 New Holland Publishers and NSW Writers’ Centre Genre Fiction Award. Sulari is the author of
A Few
Right Thinking Men
and
A Decline in Prophets
(the first two books in the Rowland Sinclair Series). She also writes Young Adult fiction.
Chasing Odysseus
, the first book in the
HERO trilogy, was released in early 2011.