We first meet Molly Darrow in 1789 in Lancashire, England, where she is living unhappily with her grandmother. Head strong and tomboyish, she evades a threatened assault by dressing as a boy and fleeing on a stolen horse. Her new-found freedom is short lived, however, when she is arrested for theft while trying to sell the horse. Originally given the death penalty, her sentence is reduced to transportation and her true identity is unveiled when she boards the ship bound for Australia. On the voyage Molly reunites with the deeply traumatised Aliza, with whom she had bonded while awaiting sentence in prison and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the young first mate, Angus Thistle, a trader when on land, who is impressed by the teenager’s strength, sharp intelligence, and commercial sense. When Molly and Angus reconnect after their arrival in Sydney, their friendship deepens and they marry, despite Molly’s doubts that a freeman would ever consider a convict as a wife.
Meg Keneally worked as a public affairs officer, sub-editor, freelance feature writer, reporter, and talkback radio producer, before co-founding a financial service public relations company, which she then sold after having her first child. For more than ten years, Meg has worked in corporate affairs for listed financial services companies, and doubles as a part-time SC UBA diving instructor. She is co-author with Tom Keneally of The Soldier's Curse and The Unmourned, the first two books in the Monsarrat Series. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.
