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WORK TITLE: A Few Right Thinking Men
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Gentill, S. D.
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.sularigentill.com/
CITY:
STATE: NSW
COUNTRY: Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian
http://www.sularigentill.com/about-me/ * https://www.panterapress.com.au/shop/category/11/sulari-gentill
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: nb2011013178
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/nb2011013178
HEADING: Gentill, Sulari
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100 1_ |a Gentill, Sulari
374 __ |a Novelists |2 lcsh
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a A few right thinking men, 2010: |b t.p. (Sulari Gentill)
670 __ |a Gentill, Sulari. A few right thinking men, 2016: |b title page (Sulari Gentill) page 4 of cover (Sulari Gentill is the author of …Rowland Sinclair mysteries, a series of historical crime fiction novels…)
PERSONAL
Born in Sri Lanka; married; children: two sons.
EDUCATION:Holds a law degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Pantera Press, Sydney, Australia, writer; Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, eminent writer in residence, 2015. Previously, worked as a lawyer in Tasmania and Australia.
AVOCATIONS:Painting.
AWARDS:Jim Hamilton Award, Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards, 2008; Varuna Fellowship, 2009; Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction, for A Decline in Prophets.
WRITINGS
Also, author (under the name S.D. Gentill) of the “Hero” trilogy, which includes Chasing Odysseus, Trying War, and The Blood of Wolves.
SIDELIGHTS
Sulari Gentill is an Australian writer who was born in Sri Lanka. She holds a law degree and previously worked as an attorney in Tasmania and Australia. Gentill is the author of the “Rowland Sinclair” series. She also wrote the “Hero” trilogy under the name S.D. Gentill.
A Few Right Thinking Men and A Decline in Prophets
In A Few Right Thinking Men, the first book in the “Rowland Sinclair” series, Gentill introduces the series’ protagonist, a painter who falls into detective work during the 1930s in Australia. Rowland, often called Rowly, investigates the murder of his uncle. Karen Chisholm, assessing the series on the Newtown Review of Books Web site, offered favorable comments on A Few Right Thinking Men. Chisholm stated: “While it could be argued that this book covers the historical aspects more strongly than the criminal, there is much promise here, which is more than met as the series has gone from strength to strength.” Booklist reviewer David Pitt suggested: “Sinclair himself is a delight, wining us over completely and making us feel as though he’s an old friend.” A critic in Publishers Weekly called the book a “well-mannered first novel.” Writing on her self-titled blog, Caroline Sully remarked: “Sulari’s research is thorough and rings of realism.”
Rowly finds himself a murder suspect after a death on a ship in A Decline in Prophets. Chisholm, the writer on the Newtown Review of Books Web site, suggested: “The closed-room scenario is something that Gentill handles deftly, again seamlessly weaving the fictional into the factual.” A critic in Kirkus Reviews described the volume as “a delightful period piece.” “The witty and insightful glimpses of the Australian bourgeoisie of this period keep this mystery afloat,” asserted a contributor to Publishers Weekly.
Miles Off Course and Paving the New Road
In Miles Off Course, Rowly travels with his friends to the Snowy Mountains and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. “Once more there is a strong plot and great character interactions, but the stand-out element here is the way that the characters seem to grow into their personas,” asserted Chisholm on the Newtown Review of Books Web site.
As tensions in Europe increase, Rowly encounters member of the Nazi Party in Germany in Paving the New Road. Chisholm commented: “Given the setting, and the timeframe, the book is more espionage than murder investigation, which makes it even more satisfying reading.”
Gentlemen Formerly Dressed and A Murder Unmentioned
In Gentlemen Formerly Dressed, Rowly, now in England, investigates the Fascist Blackshirts. Meanwhile, the Great Depression affects the West.
Gentill told a contributor to the ABIA Awards Web site: “The seeds of A Murder Unmentioned were sown in the initial pages of the first book—I just didn’t know it at the time. Each book after that seemed to give me a little more until eventually this novel evolved.” This volume finds Rowly back in Australia and looking into his father’s death. Chisholm, the critic on the Newtown Review of Books Web site praised A Murder Unmentioned, stating: “Again the ensemble cast of friends and family are all deftly moved through a plot that actually makes you wonder for a moment whether Gentill is starting to enjoy placing her central character in extremis.”
Give the Devil His Due and The Prodigal Son
Rowly and friends go to the Maroubra Speedway and take part in a car race in Give the Devil His Due. “Give the Devil His Due combines humour, sadness, thrills and spills with entertainment and a spot of education along the way,” remarked Chisholm on the Newtown Review of Books Web site.
The Prodigal Son is a novella whose plot precedes the other books in the “Rowland Sinclair” series. Reviewing the volume on the Aust Crime Fiction Web site, a writer asserted: “It deserves a wide readership because it’s very good. By all means, read this novella at any point in your catch up of the entire series of books.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2016, David Pitt, review of A Few Right Thinking Men, p. 28.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2016, review of A Decline in Prophets.
Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2016, review of A Few Right Thinking Men, p. 40; October 3, 2016, review of A Decline in Prophets, p. 99.
ONLINE
ABIA Awards Web site, http://abiaawards.com.au/ (May 18, 2015), author interview.
ACT Writers Blog, https://actwritersblog.com/ (January 20, 2016), author interview.
Aust Crime Fiction, http://www.austcrimefiction.org/ (December 2, 2016), review of The Prodigal Son.
Caroline Sully Blog, https://carolinesully.wordpress.com/ (June 27, 2011), Caroline Sully, review of A Few Right Thinking Men.
Newtown Review of Books, http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/ (January 28, 2016), Karen Chisholm, review of “Rowland Sinclair” series.
Pantera Press Web site, https://www.panterapress.com.au/ (February 13, 2017), author profile.
Poisoned Pen Press Web site, https://poisonedpenpress.com/ (February 13, 2017), author profile.
Sulari Gentill Home Page, http://www.sularigentill.com/ (February 13, 2017).
Sydney Morning Herald Online, http://www.smh.com.au/ (November 9, 2015), Mac McEvoy, author interview.
I'm Australian. I was born in Sri Lanka, learned to speak English in Zambia and grew up in Brisbane. I went to University to study Astrophysics, graduated in Law and after years of corporate contracts, realized I just wanted to tell stories. Perhaps a legal career is a natural precursor to writing fiction.
Whilst I maintain that I am nowhere near old enough for a mid-life crisis, I did begin turning down legal positions two years ago, so that I could write. Since then, I have completed four independent novels and co-authored two others. My first novel was short listed for the 2008 NSW Genre Fiction Award, and another placed in the 2008 FAW National Literary Awards (Jim Hamilton Award). In 2009 I was long-listed in the QWC Hachette Livre Manuscript Development Program and offered a Varuna Fellowship. It was enough to keep me stubbornly refusing to do anything but write, though the bills were mounting and I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be gainfully employed again. Then, in a moment which I'll always remember as one of pure joy, hysterical giddy excitement and overwhelming relief, Pantera Press asked me to become one of their authors. And so here I am.
I live and write on a small farm in the Snowy Mountains of NSW, where I grow French Black Truffles, breed miniature cattle and raise two wild colonial boys. Most of my time is now happily devoted to researching and writing. I like painting, dogs and ginger ice-cream. I could probably still draft you a contract...but you might find it has a plot...and perhaps a twist or two.
Sulari Gentill
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Sulari Gentill is an Australian author, also known under the pen name of S.D. Gentill. She initially studied astrophysics before becoming a corporate lawyer, but has since become a writer.[1]
Gentill's A Few Right Thinking Men was nominated for a 2011 Vogel Award.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 From her publisher's website
2 Bibliography
2.1 The Rowland Sinclair Series
2.2 The Hero Trilogy
3 References
4 External links
From her publisher's website[edit]
Award-winning author Sulari Gentill 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.
Sulari is author of award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, a series of historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s about Rowland Sinclair, the gentleman artist-cum-amateur-detective.
The 1st in the series A Few Right Thinking Men was shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book. A Decline in Prophets, the 2nd in the series, won the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction. Miles Off Course was released in early 2012, Paving the New Road was released in late 2012 and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for best crime fiction 2013. Gentlemen Formerly Dressed was released in November 2013. A Murder Unmentioned, the latest in the series, will be released November 2014.
Under the name S.D. Gentill, Sulari also writes a fantasy adventure series called The Hero Trilogy. All three books in the trilogy, Chasing Odysseus, Trying War and The Blood of Wolves are out now, and available in Paperback, in a trilogy pack, and as an eBook.[3]
Sulari Gentill
Award-winning author Sulari Gentill 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.
Sulari is author of award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, a series of historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s about Rowland Sinclair, the gentleman artist-cum-amateur-detective.
The first in the series A Few Right Thinking Men was shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book. A Decline in Prophets, the second in the series, won the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction. Miles Off Course was released in early 2012, Paving the New Road was released in late 2012 and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for best crime fiction 2013. Gentlemen Formerly Dressed was released in November 2013. A Murder Unmentioned, the sixth book in the series released was released November 2014 and was shortlisted for the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards "Best Crime Novel" and the 2015 Davitt Awards "Best Adult Book". The latest installment in the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, Give the Devil his Due, was released in 2015.
For most of September 2015, Sulari will be taking up residence at the reinvigorated Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra, and working at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, as she has just accepted the position Eminent Writer-in-Residence as offered to her by the ACT Writers' Centre.
Under the name S.D. Gentill, Sulari also writes a fantasy adventure series called The Hero Trilogy. All three books in the trilogy, Chasing Odysseus, Trying War and The Blood of Wolves are out now, and are available as a gift pack.
Click Here to visit Sulari's website.
NOVEMBER 9 2015
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Crime novelist Sulari Gentill sees the present in our right-wing past
Once Sulari Gentill saw her future in the stars, but now her crime writing is taking readers back to the 1930s.
Marc McEvoy
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For immigrants from temperate climates, the heat of their first Australian summer can feel relentless. Sulari Gentill was almost seven years old when she arrived in Melbourne in 1977 with her family, Sri Lankan immigrants who had moved first to England and then spent five years in Zambia while the embers of the White Australia policy were cooling.
Gentill remembers lying on the lawn with her two sisters outside her brick veneer house in Noble Park on hot summer nights while their father, who had brought them to Australia for a better education, told stories about the stars blinking above them.
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Author Sulari Gentill writes prolifically, finishing a book every three months.
Author Sulari Gentill writes prolifically, finishing a book every three months. Photo: J.C. Henry (Lime Photography)
"It was too hot in the house and my father used to describe the constellations, with Greek mythology woven in," says Gentill, a former lawyer who now writes crime novels.
"So, right through childhood I'd look up at the stars and I'd be filled with a sense of wonder. I thought it meant I should become an astrophysicist."
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Give the Devil His Due by Sulari Gentill.
Give the Devil His Due by Sulari Gentill.
That childhood dream almost became a reality. Gentill's family moved to Brisbane, settling in the riverside suburb of Yeronga, but after her schooling Gentill relocated to Canberra to study at the Australian National University. It wasn't what she expected.
"I went off to uni to study astrophysics and to my great disappointment, they told me my beautiful constellations were just balls of gas that were defined by mathematical formulas," she says.
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"After a year I moved to law simply because I was so disillusioned I had to look for a subject that had no maths in it."
Gentill's transition to law was writing's gain. While working as a corporate lawyer for water and energy companies, she discovered she had a skill in storytelling.
"Law is very much a storytelling profession. When you explain a contract to a client you often resort to story. The better you can make your story, the more likely you are to get them to agree."
About six years ago, she decided to try her hand at fiction. It was more accident than design. She had no lifelong ambition to be a writer and her first attempts were young-adult fantasy adventure stories that drew on her knowledge of the classical mythology taught to her by her father.
They were eventually published in 2011 and 2012 as a series called The Hero Trilogy.
However, Gentill's latest book, Give the Devil His Due, is her seventh novel in a historical crime fiction series set in 1930s Australia that was picked up in 2010 by independent publisher Pantera Press. The first, A Few Right Thinking Men, was shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book. A Decline in Prophets, the second, won the 2012 Davitt Award for best adult crime fiction.
Like all the books in the series, Give the Devil His Due follows the exploits of Rowland Sinclair, a wealthy gentleman artist turned amateur sleuth who lives in a Woollahra mansion where he entertains bohemian friends including the object of his passion, sculptor Edna Higgins, and his friend Clyde Watson Jones, who is handy with his fists. Sinclair's political leanings are obvious. His greyhound is called Lenin.
In the new novel, Sinclair, a keen driver who plans to race his Mercedes at the Maroubra Speedway, is embroiled in a murder mystery after a journalist who has interviewed him turns up dead.
As in any good whodunit, there are plenty of twists and turns, including a dip into the occult.
Real-life figures also play a part: actor Errol Flynn, artist Norman Lindsay, Smith's Weekly reporter turned "Witch of Kings Cross" Rosaleen Norton, and even Arthur Stace, author of the ubiquitous "Eternity", written in chalk around the city. To add a feel for the times, each chapter opens with a real cut-out from publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald.
Like Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries, Gentill's stories are part of a growing interest in Australian historical crime fiction. Sinclair even has a touch of the eccentric chivalry found in Arthur Conan Doyle's bohemian detective Sherlock Holmes.
Gentill decided to write stories set during the 1930s because her husband, Michael, a history and English schoolteacher who helps edit and research her work, was frustrated with reading subjects he knew little about in her fantasy stories.
"Initially it was a very pragmatic decision to make the change to set my stories in the 1930s," she says. "Michael's a boy from the country and he'd get caught every time he came up against a name like Agamemnon or Achilles, complaining that they would stop his enjoyment of the manuscript. So one day he says, 'For God's sake, Sulari, can't you write something with names like Peter and Paul in it?' "
Gentill breaks out laughing. "Of course I ignored him at the beginning but I realised I had fallen in love with the craft of writing, and when I write I become completely immersed in what I am doing, which is fine for me, but it's hard on your partner. So I went looking for something pragmatically, to bring Michael into my head."
As a historian, Michael's area of expertise is the extreme right-wing movement in Australia during the 1930s. Gentill read his thesis and realised it would make a fascinating backdrop for a novel.
The recurring villain in her series is the historical figure Eric Campbell, a World War I veteran turned lawyer who established the the right-wing New Guard, which was tied to the fascist movements in Germany and Italy. Other members included Captain Francis de Groot, who beat Premier Jack Lang to cutting the ribbon at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (D.H. Lawrence's novel Kangaroo is partly about the Old Guard, the anti-communist group from which the New Guard split in 1931).
"As I dug into it, the 1930s entranced me because of its position in our history," Gentill says.
"Coming off the 1920s, Australians were angry and disillusioned, open to new ways of thinking as the old mores fell away. But the 1930s led to World War II and that intrigued me. It seemed to be a time when Australia was deciding who it was."
Gentill says the period has parallels with Australia today, particularly after the global financial crisis. "We live in a sort of shadow of what happened in the 1930s after the Depression," she says.
The public's impotence over the treatment of asylum seekers is a case in point.
"That happens because people get distracted by just living. You see things that are wrong. You say, 'That's not right. I object to that. That's not compassionate. That's not humanitarian.' But you get distracted by paying the electricity bill and driving the kids to school and so on."
Gentill, who is 44, writes at an astonishing rate, completing a novel in three months. She and Michael live with their two sons, Edmund, 14, and 10-year-old Atticus (named after the protagonist in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Gentill's favourite book), on a 25-hectare property on the outskirts of Batlow, a town of 1500 in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.
They bought the farm 16 years ago when Gentill had to commute from Tasmania, where she worked as lawyer. It meant being separated for long periods but they had a strategy for the future.
They planted oak trees, added 50 tonnes of lime to their soil and cultivated French black truffles, the culinary delicacy. After four years, the first truffles sprouted on the oak roots and they now run a successful truffery, doing truffle runs every week during winter, sometimes in the snow by moonlight.
Gentill says that living away from city lights provides a wonderful view of the stars and, as her father did for her, she talks to her sons about the constellations.
"I thought when I told them about mythology and stars that they'd switch off, thinking, 'There goes Mum again', but they listen. When you are out in the country and you look up at the Milky Way, you feel the immensity of the universe."
Gentill's favourite constellation is Orion. "I love it because it is so easy to pick. You look for the saucepan in the sky and sound very learned when you cry, 'Look, there's Orion'."
Give the Devil His Due is published by Pantera Press at $29.99.
And another thing: Gentill learnt to speak English in Zambia but her parents made it her primary language only after emigrating to Australia.
Sulari Gentill
Sulari Gentill 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 New South Wales, which she shares with her young family and several animals.
Sulari is author of the award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, a series of historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s about Rowland Sinclair, the gentleman artist-cum-amateur-detective.
The first in the series, A Few Right Thinking Men was shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book. A Decline in Prophets, the second in the series, won the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction. Miles Off Course was released in early 2012, Paving the New Road was released in late 2012 and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for best crime fiction 2013. Gentlemen Formerly Dressed was released in November 2013.
Under the name S.D. Gentill, Sulari also writes a fantasy adventure series called The Hero Trilogy. All three books in the trilogy, Chasing Odysseus, Trying War and The Blood of Wolves are out now, and available in paperback, in a trilogy pack, and as an eBook.
QUOTED: " While it could be argued that this book covers the historical aspects more strongly than the criminal, there is much promise here, which is more than met as the series has gone from strength to strength."
" the closed-room scenario is something that Gentill handles deftly, again seamlessly weaving the fictional into the factual."
" Once more there is a strong plot and great character interactions, but the stand-out element here is the way that the characters seem to grow into their personas"
" Given the setting, and the timeframe, the book is more espionage than murder investigation, which makes it even more satisfying reading."
" Again the ensemble cast of friends and family are all deftly moved through a plot that actually makes you wonder for a moment whether Gentill is starting to enjoy placing her central character in extremis."
" Give the Devil His Due combines humour, sadness, thrills and spills with entertainment and a spot of education along the way."
Posted on 28 Jan, 2016 in Crime Scene | 2 comments
Crime Scene: SULARI GENTILL The Rowland Sinclair series. An overview by Karen Chisholm
Tags: Australian crime fiction/ Australian women writers/ Eric Campbell/ historical fiction/ Sulari Gentill/ the New Guard
devilhisdueSulari Gentill’s award-winning historical crime series is written with verve and spirit, the fiction woven seamlessly into actual events of the time.
In 2010 a new crime fiction series was launched, set in 1930s Australia where the effects of the Great Depression are still being felt. The protagonist – Rowland Sinclair – is a member of an important family in the Squattocracy. His position as the youngest son has provided him with the freedom to follow his heart, unlike his older, much more traditionally inclined brother Wilfred, who has stayed on the family property. Rowly lives in the family’s Sydney mansion, which has become a sort of select bohemian artists’ colony. Sharing the house are Edna the sculptress; Milton (Isaac) the poet, and Clyde, a fellow country boy and painter. They are looked after by a perpetually bemused, and often scandalised, housekeeper. The connections between the four housemates are deep and heartfelt. They are friends, fellow outsiders, and extremely supportive and protective of each other. In his own way, Rowly’s brother is equally protective of him, and together they form a close, sometimes slightly exasperated with each other, and believable cast. Character and connection are vitally important in these novels.
As is the sense of time and place. The settings are a combination of locations – not just within Australia, but also ranging to Europe, in particular — and include actual historical events. Gentill skilfully weaves reality into her stories – whether it’s the advent of Eric Campbell’s New Guard in 1930s Australia or the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany, she’s not afraid to work within some of history’s darkest moments. There are also contrasting lighter touches, with landscape pioneer Edna Walling making an appearance, very early air travel, and of course, Rowly’s glorious Mercedes sports car – of which Wilfred heartily disapproves. To assist further with the sense of time, each chapter starts with a newspaper clipping or quotation. Some of these are breathtaking, many are weirdly funny (like the one in the latest book espousing the benefits of smoking in moderation), but all of them serve to reinforce the sense of the times.
rightthinkingmenThe first book in the series is A Few Right Thinking Men, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book. Set in Sydney and Yass, it instantly draws the reader into the tension between Fascists and Communists and the activities of the New Guard in particular, some of which concern Rowly’s own family:
‘You don’t need to worry about my discretion, Wil,’ Rowland said angrily. ‘I’m not about to tell anyone that my brother is raising some clandestine, tweed-jacketed army because he thinks Stalin is heading south!’
While it could be argued that this book covers the historical aspects more strongly than the criminal, there is much promise here, which is more than met as the series has gone from strength to strength.
declineinprophets2011’s release was A Decline in Prophets (winner of the 2012 Davitt Award for best crime fiction). Getting the balance between history and mystery spot on, the characters continue to evolve individually and as a group. The easy friendship between them all is wonderful – from Milton’s propensity to spout lines of poetry as if they’re his own, and Rowly’s low-key responses with the actual authors’ names, to Edna’s affection for Rowly and his more strongly felt, never really articulated feelings, these seem like people who have known and accepted each other for a very long time. With the action taking place mostly at sea, on the RMS Aquitania, the closed-room scenario is something that Gentill handles deftly, again seamlessly weaving the fictional into the factual.
milesoffcourseMiles Off Course came out in 2012 and saw Rowland and his band of friends return to New South Wales — specifically, to the Blue Mountains’ luxury Hydro Majestic Hotel and the High Country of the Snowy Mountains. Once more there is a strong plot and great character interactions, but the stand-out element here is the way that the characters seem to grow into their personas, with glimpses of internal conflict and questioning amongst the banter. While this is a series that you could start reading at any point, starting at the beginning would be more rewarding, to see how the characters grow and develop.
pavingthenewroadPaving the New Road (shortlisted for the 2013 Davitt Award) came out in the same year, and as you’d expect from the 1930s timeframe, starts to look towards the threat in Europe. Rowly and companions find themselves in Germany at the same time that Australian New Guard leader Eric Campbell is wining and dining the upper echelons of the Third Reich, amongst others, giving Gentill the chance to be a lot more pointed about historical events. She avoids the cliché of Rowly coming face to face with high-profile Fascists; he encounters instead well-known supporters and sympathisers. While it might seem odd that a bohemian artist is even considered for the role of spy, the mechanics of Rowly in Germany work well, providing a solid base for the need to investigate the mysterious death of the man in whose footsteps he follows. Given the setting, and the timeframe, the book is more espionage than murder investigation, which makes it even more satisfying reading.
gentlemen2013’s Gentlemen Formerly Dressed is set immediately after the group escapes from Nazi Germany. In England they quickly find themselves immersed in more Fascist Blackshirt activities, scandals and spying. Deftly combining the extremes of Fascism and the cloud of the Great Depression with disquiet at the ease with which a couple of Communist Australians can accept the services of a butler is not, one would assume, a scenario that would come easily to a writer. It’s all managed with considerable aplomb and humour:
‘Clyde, old boy, are you all right?’ Roland whispered … ‘You look a trifle unwell.’
‘Of course I do.’ Clyde shook his head. ‘Why don’t you?’
‘I was at Oxford,’ Rowland replied, shrugging. ‘Englishmen, you know. I’m sorry, mate. I should have realised this was not an ordinary dance.’
‘Rowly,’ Clyde said, convinced his friend was taking the situation far too lightly, ‘We are surrounded … surrounded by men in evening gowns and make-up. We have to get the hell out of of here!’
Rowland grinned … ‘Don’t panic, mate … just don’t ask anyone to dance.’
The elements of plot, character and history are well balanced as Gentill combines the complications of knotting ties correctly, the comedy inherent in a wax head in a hatbox and the rabbit-in-headlights effect of a full set of cutlery at a formal dinner with a clever murder plot – never once losing sight of Rowly and his companions’ determination to right wrongs for the disempowered in a world where money and titles talk.
murderunmentionedIn A Murder Unmentioned (2014) the group returns to Australia, still coming to terms with their European experiences. They are given no time to recover, however, and the mystery this time is historical for them, and extremely personal for Rowly. Set within a flurry of landscape gardening at the Yass family property, one of the best-known garden designers from that period discovers a clue when remodelling the grounds of the family farmstead, which takes Rowly and his brother Wilfred back to the death of their own father. In the meantime, their mother’s mental confusion grows worse, and as Wilfred’s family starts to grow in size, some decisions need to be made. Again the ensemble cast of friends and family are all deftly moved through a plot that actually makes you wonder for a moment whether Gentill is starting to enjoy placing her central character in extremis. Despite this being a book that you really cannot read as an introduction or as a stand-alone, you can clearly see why it was shortlisted for the prestigious Ned Kelly Award.
devilhisdueWhich brings us to the latest release, 2015’s Give the Devil his Due. Remaining in Australia, this time Rowly Sinclair and friends are involved in a car race at the so-called Killer Track – Maroubra Speedway. Rowly is shanghaied into participation by his mother, now living at the family’s Sydney mansion. She is happy to be there under the care of nurses, and the watchful eye of Rowly (who she still believes is his older brother, who was killed in the Great War). This time the mystery is multi-faceted, starting out with the odd death of a journalist covering the race, then expanding to include the reaction and threat that comes from a death during racing practice.
The opening lines of this book give you a feeling for the delivery as well as the set-up:
Rowland Sinclair’s dealings with the press were rarely so civil. To date, his appearances in the pages of Sydney’s newspapers had been, at best, reluctant, and more frequently, the subject of legal proceedings for libel.
The battle between the racers, the journalists and the killers weaves itself around contemporary events, and personalities. Even Errol Flynn gets a bit part, although the old enemies and sentiments are never far away:
‘If you didn’t insist on driving that bloody Fritz contraption people wouldn’t get the wrong idea!’
‘What idea, Wil?’ Rowland demanded. ‘It wasn’t so long ago that Smith’s bloody Weekly was branding me a Communist. The blithering idiots don’t seem to know the difference!’
In among car racing, murder investigations, assassination attempts and odd goings-on at a wax museum, Rowly is dealing with Errol Flynn’s fascination with Edna, Clyde is coping with love lost to a proposed arranged marriage, and Wilfred has both his eldest son at boarding school in Sydney and a new baby. It’s interesting to look back at the start of motor racing in Australia and how very dangerous it was, even without unsavoury types lurking around the edges. As is always the way with the Rowland Sinclair books, Give the Devil His Due combines humour, sadness, thrills and spills with entertainment and a spot of education along the way. There’s even room for something deeper:
‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here,’ Milton declared quite sadly.
‘Shakespeare,’ Rowland said. ‘I’m afraid he might be right.’
Karen Chisholm blogs from http://www.austcrimefiction.org, where she posts book reviews well as author biographies.
The series:
A Few Right Thinking Men Pantera Press 2010 PB 288pp $22.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
A Decline in Prophets Pantera Press 2011 PB 368pp $22.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
Miles Off Course Pantera Press 2012 PB 350pp $29.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
Paving the New Road Pantera Press 2012 PB 416pp $22.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
Gentlemen Formerly Dressed Pantera Press 2013 PB 368pp $22.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
A Murder Unmentioned Pantera Press 2014 PB 384pp $22.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
Give the Devil His Due Pantera Press 2015 PB 364pp $29.99. Buy this from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or from Booktopia here.
To see if the books are available from Newtown Library, click here.
ACT WRITERS CENTRE
A FINE SETTING FOR MURDER: an interview with Sulari Gentill
Posted on 20/01/2016 by ACTWRITERSCENTRE Leave a comment
sulari
In 2015 Sulari Gentill was the first to participate in the ACT Eminent Writer-in-Residence Program, an initiative of the ACT Writers Centre in collaboration with the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Sulari Gentill is author of award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, a series of historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s about Rowland Sinclair, the gentleman artist-cum-amateur-detective. The first in the series, A Few Right Thinking Men, was shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book. A Decline in Prophets, the second in the series, won the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction. Miles off Course was released in early 2012, Paving the New Road was released in late 2012 and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for best crime fiction 2013. Gentlemen Formally Dressed was released in November 2013. A Murder Unmentioned, the sixth book in the series released was released November 2014 and was shortlisted for the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards Best Crime Novel and the 2015 Davitt Awards Best Adult Book. The next instalment in the Rowland Sinclair series, Give the Devil his Due, was release at the end of 2015. Under the name S.D. Gentill, Sulari also writes a fantasy adventure series called The Hero Trilogy. Visit Sulari at website.
ACTWC: What attracted you to the 2015 Eminent Writer-in-Residence Program?
Sulari Gentill: Honestly if I didn’t know better, I would think EWIR Program had been designed specifically for me. My writing, at its heart, is about democracy and Australian democracy in particular. The opportunity to work in the nation’s capital in a building which housed the political players of the time was ideal. The timing was also perfect—I had just completed the seventh Rowland Sinclair novel and was mulling possibilities for the eighth. The events I hoped to feature in the new book involved the government of the day and the newly elected Attorney General—Robert Menzies. As a writer I don’t really plot, I just gather ideas and allow them to form naturally into a story. The Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD) at Old Parliament House was a brilliant place to gather ideas. Indeed, I amassed so many I feel quite greedy.
Can you tell us a little about your experience of the residency? What was your typical day?
Physically, I’d leave the Gorman Arts Centre for Old Parliament House in the morning, work there most of the day, rifling through documents, listening to audio histories, talking to MOAD staff or simply absorbing the atmosphere of the house. I’d catch the bus back to the Gorman Arts Centre late in the afternoon, grab some takeaway as I passed through the CBD and then spend the evening writing in the ArtSit—often till the early hours of the morning. But of course the residency was about much more than what I did physically. I had, in that month, not only the time to mull over story, but the mind space to give myself over to it completely. My days at Old Parliament House were spent pursuing every passing storyline and echo of past intrigue—doggedly, without the need to break off the chase to attend to the usual obligations of work and family. Back at the ArtSit I indulged in having nothing to do but write. For someone who has always snatched time from a crowded life, it was a strange and glorious chance to be writer and nothing else.
Canberra certainly makes this type of residency experience fairly easy. How else do you think the city impacted on your time here?
Canberra’s layout with institutions like MOAD, the National Library, the Art Gallery, the National Archives and the National Portrait Gallery etc all within walking distance of each other is a researcher’s dream. I happened to be in the Capital during our most recent change of prime minister so I was also able to absorb an atmosphere of political skulduggery from a very proximate location! As a writer who uses political history as a setting for murder, I could not possibly have asked for more. Moreover Canberrans are extraordinarily polite and kind—complete strangers helped me find buses, ensured I got on the right one and even gave me rides back to the ArtSit. I felt very at home.
Sounds like you had a terrific time in Canberra. What’s next for you?
I did indeed have a brilliant time in Canberra. Several projects have lined up to demand my attention since then. I’ll start the eighth Rowland Sinclair Mystery, the background of which I researched at MOAD-OPH, in January, with a submission deadline of 30 March 2016. Till then I’m working on the first book of a new historical trilogy, polishing a short story I’ve written for Clandestine Press’ And Then… anthology, and playing with the illustrations for a children’s book inspired by and written in the Gorman Arts Centre ArtSit. I do hope to do some painting over the next months, both on canvas and walls. And of course there’s Christmas, school holidays and the other wonderful distractions of life.
*
The 2016 Eminent Writer-In-Residence Program will be open for applications in March. For more information visit our website here.
*
The ACT Eminent Writer-In-Residence Program is supported by the ACT Government through artsACT. The ACT Writers Centre acknowledges the assistance of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centres.
QUOTED: "The seeds of A Murder Unmentioned were sown in the initial pages of the first book—I just didn’t know it at the time. Each book after that seemed to give me a little more until eventually this novel evolved."
Sulari Gentill Q&A
by Abiawards on May 18, 2015
Q&A with Sulari Gentill, author of A Murder Unmentioned, shortlisted for the 2015 ABIA Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year
Gentill_Sulari
How did the idea to write your book originate?
The idea for this book evolved more than originated. A Murder Unmentioned is the sixth book in the Rowland Sinclair series. Each book now, seems to be a natural evolution of what has gone before, a new facet of the 1930s with its own place in the events and milieu of that tumultuous time between the wars. With every instalment of this series, I find more material, more questions to explore and consider in future books. The seeds of A Murder Unmentioned were sown in the initial pages of the first book—I just didn’t know it at the time. Each book after that seemed to give me a little more until eventually this novel evolved.
What’s your favourite thing about being a published author?
There are many reasons why writers wish to be published. For me, it’s primarily the notion that being read gives the characters in my stories an existence that is independent of me. I could die tomorrow and Rowland Sinclair would continue to live in the minds and imaginations of readers who have never known me. It’s a little like I’m connected to all my readers by a friend in common. Though writers are very human, publication give stories a kind of immortality.
What are some of the things you love about Australian bookstores?
Invariably Australian bookstores are owned and run by people who above all have a love of books and the written word. They are a depository of imagination, expression and ideas in world that still sorely needs all of those things. I love the physical act of browsing, of pulling books off the shelf, reading the endorsement cards from staff, opening the book to read the first page and holding it up against others that have caught my eye.
What’s the most recent Australian book that you read and loved?
Remember Smith’s Weekly by George Blaikie. I found and acquired the book as research for the novel I’m currently writing. It’s a wonderful, personal account of one of Australia’s most controversial and sensationalist old newspapers, and the extraordinary journalists and artists who worked on it.
If you could meet any Australian author, dead or alive, who would you like to meet?
Norman Lindsay. I find him fascinating as a writer, an artist and a human being. I’d like to think we could have a very lively conversation, though in reality I might be too star struck (or frightened given that he’s dead) to say anything but “Yes, Mr. Lindsay”.
What Australian book had the biggest impact on you as a child?
The Adventures of Blinky Bill – I read it when I was about 6 or 7 years old … when I was still a new immigrant. I remember trying to eat gumnuts.
After readers have finished reading your book, which Australian book would you recommend they read next?
Assuming they liked my book? of course they did! Robert Gott’s Will Power Series. Set just a little bit after the Rowland Sinclair series, they’re clever, wickedly funny and very Australian.
QUOTED: "a delightful period piece."
Sulari Gentill: A DECLINE IN PROPHETS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 1, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sulari Gentill A DECLINE IN PROPHETS Poisoned Pen (Adult Fiction) 26.95 ISBN: 978-1-4642-0681-8
A wealthy, bohemian Australian artist is forced to become an amateur sleuth. Rowland Sinclair and three of his close friends are on their way
home from a protracted trip to Europe just as Hitler is coming to power. The companions at their table on the RMS Aquitania include Annie
Besant, World President of the Theosophical movement; Jiddu Krishnamurti, whos just resigned as the movements messiah; and Englishman
Orville Urquhart, whos perhaps a bit too attentive to Rowlys friend and beautiful sculptress and model Edna Higgins. Left-leaning poet Milton
Isaacs and artist Clyde Watson Jones get along well with their outlandish new acquaintances. Not so militant Bishop Hanrahan, who refuses to
dine anywhere near them, and his minders, Father Murphy and Father Bryan, who are traveling with the bishop and his beautiful but apparently
shy niece, Isobel. When Urquhart presses unwanted advances upon Edna, Rowly breaks his nose. So the discovery of Urquharts body in a
lifeboat, stabbed with Rowlys broken walking stick, makes him the obvious suspect even though the captain believes him innocent. After an
interesting visit in New York, where a wealthy artist friend of Rowlys puts them up in the Warwick and Edna dates up-and-coming actor
Archibald Leach, they reboard the Aquitania for the trip to Australia. When Isobel makes determined overtures toward Rowly, his artists eye
notes that shes pregnant. Things look bleak for Rowly when Isobels pushed overboard in Sydneys harbor, but a friend he made on the police force
during his first adventure (A Few Right Thinking Men, 2016) allows him to go home, where his stuffy older brother tries to make him into a
proper gentleman. Further complications ensue before Rowly can uncover a determined murderer. A delightful period piece.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sulari Gentill: A DECLINE IN PROPHETS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA465181852&it=r&asid=4fc1f5cc70d418ef45fe98c662ce8a28. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A465181852
---
QUOTED: "The witty and insightful glimpses of the Australian bourgeoisie of
this period keep this mystery afloat"
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486343755018 2/5
A Decline in Prophets: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
263.40 (Oct. 3, 2016): p99.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A Decline in Prophets: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery
Sulari Gentill. Poisoned Pen, $26.95 (334p) ISBN 978-1-4642-0681-8; $15.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-4642-0683-2
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Set in late 1932, Gentill's lively second mystery featuring dashing Australian millionaire Rowland "Rowly" Sinclair (after A Few Right Thinking
Men) takes place initially aboard the luxury cruise ship Aquitania, as it steams along toward Sydney. Members of the Theosophical Society,
Roman Catholic priests and bishops, Indian mystics, casual Protestants, clairvoyants, and Freemasons mix and mingle as best they can with
Rowly and his entourage of poets and artists, or as Rowly's brother refers to them, "unemployed, subversive ne'er-dowells!" When the honor of
Rowly's friend, the decidedly delectable sculptress and model Edna Higgins, is in danger, he steps in to defend her from her unwanted suitor. The
latter's subsequent murder has Rowly first cast as a suspect and then slipping into the role of detective. On the ship's arrival in Sydney in time for
the Christmas holidays, the murders continue, as do attempts on Rowly's life. The witty and insightful glimpses of the Australian bourgeoisie of
this period keep this mystery afloat. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Decline in Prophets: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 3 Oct. 2016, p. 99. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466166575&it=r&asid=59ae71c58406161015466db4657621d3. Accessed 5 Feb.
2017.
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486343755018 3/5
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466166575
---
QUOTED: "Sinclair himself is a delight, wining us over completely and making us feel as though he's
an old friend"
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486343755018 4/5
A Few Right Thinking Men
Davit Pitt
Booklist.
112.17 (May 1, 2016): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* A Few Right Thinking Men. By Sulari Gentill. June 2016.338p. Poisoned Pen, $26.95 (9781464206351); paper, $15.95 (9781464206375); e
book, $9.99 (978146420632).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The first installment of the Rowland Sinclair series (originally published in Australia in 2011) finds the artist and amateur sleuth looking into the
murder of his own uncle. The book is set in the 1930s, an oft-used period by mystery writers. It does share some literary DNA with Kerry
Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series--an independently wealthy protagonist, an Australian setting, a roughly similar time frame--but it would be a
mistake to shrug the book off as a Greenwood wannabe. Gentill took a rather circuitous route to becoming a writer, studying astrophysics and
then going into the law, but she writes as though she were born to it: gracefully, with a sharp eye for details in characterization and dialogue, and
with an ability to keep us guessing about where, exactly, the story is headed. As series-launching novels go, this one is especially successful: the
plot effectively plays Sinclairs aristocratic bearing and involvement in the arts against the Depression setting, fraught with radical politics, both of
which he becomes involved in as he turns sleuth. And Sinclair himself is a delight, wining us over completely and making us feel as though he's
an old friend.--David Pitt
Pitt, Davit
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Pitt, Davit. "A Few Right Thinking Men." Booklist, 1 May 2016, p. 28. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA453293625&it=r&asid=be732f0f42228bbf451c7b4cadc4785d. Accessed 5 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453293625
---
QUOTED: "well-mannered first novel"
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486343755018 5/5
A Few Right Thinking Men: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
263.15 (Apr. 11, 2016): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A Few Right Thinking Men: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery
Sulari Gentill. Poisoned Pen, $26.95 (338p) ISBN 978-1-4642-0635-1; $15.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-4642-0637-5
Gentill's well-mannered first novel in a series set in Depression-era Australia introduces gentleman painter Rowland "Rowly" Sinclair, the
somewhat emotionally reserved youngest son of a moneyed family. Rowly's pursuit of his artistic path and financial support of several similarminded
creative friends are causes of concern to his older brother and their peers, "right-thinking men" who suspect Rowly's associates of
Communist leanings or worse. When Rowly's uncle, also named Roland Sinclair, dies after being assaulted in his Sydney home, the police
suspect the elderly housekeeper, in collusion with other disenfranchised elements, despite the housekeeper's reported sighting of mysterious dark
figures at the scene. Convinced the police are pursuing the wrong path, Rowly looks deeper into his uncle's holdings and interests. Gentill's
positioning of Rowly as an observer of the personal consequences of political actions targeting the privileged and the not so fortunate helps
inform the sometimes dry narrative. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Few Right Thinking Men: A Rowland Sinclair Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 11 Apr. 2016, p. 40+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449662959&it=r&asid=81d2a797866c06d43033d21aa754d49f. Accessed 5 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449662959
QUOTED: "It deserves a wide readership because it's very good. By all means, read this novella at any point in your catch up of the entire series of books"
REVIEW - THE PRODIGAL SON, SULARI GENTILL
Book Cover
Author Information
Author Name:
Sulari Gentill
Author's Home Country:
Australia
Publication Details
Book Title:
The Prodigal Son
ISBN:
9781921997716
Series:
Rowland Sinclair
Year of Publication:
2016
Publisher:
Pantera Press
Publisher Website:
Pantera Press - ebook Gift to Rowland Sinclair Fans (link is external)
Categories & Groupings
Category:
Crime Fiction
Sub Genre:
Novella
Book Synopsis
1928
After eight years abroad, Rowland Sinclair has come home to a house he hates, and a city which seems conservative ... and dull.
He longs to return to the bright lights of Europe. Until an old friend persuades him to join Sydney Art School.
There, under the tutelage of the renowned Julian Ashton, Rowland learns to paint and finds himself drawn into the avant-garde world of Sydney’s artistic set.
But murder rears its ugly head and Rowland must decide who his friends really are.
Book Review
Anybody who knows about this series will be aware that this novella has been a gift from the author to fans, a little taste of the ongoing series, as a thank you, and a filler in a bit of a gap between novels. It has the added benefit of fleshing out the back-story of Rowland Sinclair and his band of compatriots - Edna, Clyde and Milton.
It should be astounding that even within the size restrictions of a novella, Gentill has managed to provide that back-story, build in a murder, set up a bit of romantic tension, and give a feel for the societal tensions at the time, but really it's not. Gentill is nothing if not a consummate story teller, and her Rowland Sinclair series is about as pitch perfect as you could want.
A review, therefore, in novella form that breaks quite a few of the self-imposed rules. There really doesn't need to be any careful analysis of the whys and wherefores of this series. It deserves a wide readership because it's very good. By all means, read this novella at any point in your catch up of the entire series of books - but whatever you do make sure you read this series. It's glorious.
Submitted 2 months 5 days ago by Karen.
Friday, December 2, 2016 - 10:02pm
QUOTED: "Sulari’s research is thorough and rings of realism. "
JUNE 27, 2011 · 8:48 PM ↓ Jump to Comments
Book review: A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill
A Few Right Thinking Men
Image nicked unashamedly from the author's site but I hope she doesn't mind
I’ve mentioned before my love of Golden Age fiction or fiction set in that era, and was wandering around the excellent bookshop in the Qantas terminal getting ready to fly to Adelaide last Friday when I saw a paperback that intrigued me; the artwork on its cover was 1920/30s inspired, so I picked it up, scanned the back cover, realised it was a murder mystery set in Sydney in 1931 and thought: “Yay!! That’s my flight read!”
The book in question is A Few Right Thinking Men by Australian author Sulari Gentill.
It moves from the unlikely but somehow believable world of bohemian artists living in a posh Woollahra mansion to the country town of Yass in southern NSW. Now Yass I know quite well; my grandmother was born there, and I was intrigued at Sulari’s version of Yass in the early 1930s, where a rather disturbing, and disturbingly large, group of what we’d now call rednecks held a rebellious meeting against the NSW Labor government of the time.
I don’t want to spoil the plot, save for explaining a bit of confusion. In the preface to chapter one, Rowland Sinclair’s death is reported. Now… Rowland Sinclair is the hero so I was a bit bemused until his uncle with the same name came on the scene (and was nastily bumped off shortly afterward, hence the murder mystery).
Rowland the hero mixes with real-life characters from the time in an effort to solve the mystery of his uncle’s murder. Sulari’s research is thorough and rings of realism. The book is set in the Depression and moves between Rowland’s privileged and very moneyed world to that of the battlers with understanding, empathy and realism. My family – my grandparents and their two young daughters – moved from country NSW to Sydney when the Depression hit, and the entire family lived in one room in a Woollahra mansion which had been converted to flats. It was easy for me to reconcile stories I’d heard about Sydney at the time with Sulari’s book, and find an authenticity in it.
Some of the characters and actions seem larger than life; but then the book touches on real events and people here and there and as a reader you discover that Sydney – in fact NSW – was polarised at the time (what’s changed, you may ask. That’s another story!). Think of De Groot, riding through the crowd on his horse and slashing the ribbon on the Harbour Bridge at the official opening. He’s in the book, so is the New Guard and Old Guard, and assuming Sulari’s research is as thorough as it appears they were a right nasty bunch of right-wingers. Admittedly the threat of Communism was seen as being very real back then, and this book is as much about politics as it is about the bohemian world of the artist and his friends, the family antagonism as Rowland and his brother face off on either side of the political wall, and let’s not forget the murder. Premier Jack Lang was seen by many as flying a flag that was just a bit too red. 1930s Sydney was a rough, tough place; it needed rough, tough politics to survive at a time when money, food and jobs were scarce. Between Lang’s Labor and the New or Old Guard was truly between a rock and a hard place.
Sulari has chosen a wealthy man as the hero in the tradition of many Golden Age writers or modern writers setting their work in that period. The nearest modern and local comparison I can give you is Kerry Greenwood’s elegant and titled Phryne Fisher, the lovely 1920s Melbourne sleuth. Making your hero or heroine well-heeled allows them to move freely through society; it allows the author to set them in enviable surroundings, the type of place readers enjoy mentally escaping to. It’s more empathetic for us 21st century softies than having a hero stuck in the dinginess of a Darlinghurst two up, two down with a lean-to kitchen out the back, a permanent smell of cabbages and no money for the tram fare or no entree to posh places to nab a snobby villain. Like Phryne Fisher, Rowland Sinclair has a superb car at his disposal – escapism at its finest, in many senses of the term (particuarly Rowland’s!).
In many ways the real hero of the book is 1930s Sydney; Rowland’s character isn’t as developed as it could be – I don’t know him well yet, he’s not the close friend a hero can be at this stage – but I suspect more about his earlier life, and a stronger character development, will emerge as time goes on. While I empathised with Rowland during my 1930s romp around NSW I felt I didn’t get to ‘know’ him as well as I’ve got to know other lead characters. This book is the first in a series the author is planning. I’m looking forward to reading more and watching this intriguing series, and its lead characters, develop.
This book has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book 2011. I wish the author good luck – good crime in a well-researched vintage setting is a winner for me!