Shameless Halloran, convict stablehand, has a problem. He knows of a murder but doesn't dare tell anyone. Who can he trust? Every figure of authority in this early Australian penal settlement is a potential suspect—all have dark pasts and ruthless ambitions.

So the canny Irishman enlists the help of a young doctor, newly arrived, as respectable front for his sleuthing. What follows is a tension-packed and hilarious romp as the odd couple lurch erratically towards an unlikely revelation.

Bloody Colonials is a wickedly satirical piece of crime fiction set in a forbidding landscape—where big fish battle to the death in a dangerously small pond.