Give the Devil His Due (51 page)

Errol Flynn departed Australia for England shortly after the Maroubra Invitational. Flynn was cast as the lead in
Murder at Monte Carlo
, during the filming of which he was offered a contract with Warner Bros. Studios. He emigrated to America and, quickly thereafter, became a Hollywood sensation. Edna Higgins genuinely wished him the best, and wrote him a letter of introduction to Archibald Leach whom she believed had done quite well for himself since last she'd seen him.

Rosaleen Norton's short story,
Moon Madness,
was published in July 1934. She left the employ of
Smith's Weekly
at the end of that year, determined to pursue a career as an artist. Her increasingly bizarre, sexually charged pictures would provoke controversy throughout her career, as would her connection with early European witchcraft and the occult. In time the press would brand her the “Witch of Kings Cross”.

Percy Reginald “Inky” Stephensen shifted his allegiances from the left to the far right sometime in the mid 1930s. In 1936, he wrote and published
The Foundations of Culture in Australia,
which was credited with influencing the formation of the Jindyworobak poetry movement. That same year, he launched the monthly
Publicist
which had a strongly anti-British, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic flavour. In 1941, he founded the Australia First Movement, a political pressure group based on the program advocated by the
Publicist
.

Joan Richmond returned to Europe in time for the 1934 Munich Alpine Rally, after which she was selected to meet the German Chancellor at an entirely different kind of rally. Later, despite not liking what she'd seen of the Nazis, she would recount a strange irresistible urge to cheer Adolf Hitler, along with all masses in attendance.

Dr. Reginald Stuart Jones was never charged over the incident involving Edna Higgins, though it was an episode that Rowland Sinclair would, in time, give him cause to regret. His relationship with John Hartley, while never officially investigated, would eventually end the detective's career.

Wilfred Sinclair was for some time quite furious with his brother. Indeed, he may have insisted their mother cease residence at
Woodlands
House
with “Rowly's band of godless Communists” if it weren't for the fact that Elisabeth Sinclair would not hear of it. She quite liked living in Sydney with Aubrey and his friends, and was adamant that at thirty-five she was quite old enough to choose where she lived.

For over thirty years after he met Rowland Sinclair, Arthur Stace would write the word “Eternity” in copperplate style on footpaths and walls all over Sydney, where he became something of a legend. Rowland would see the epigraph, freshly drawn from time to time, and wonder if it might have had anything to do with the fact that he survived the Maroubra Invitational.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I find myself preparing to thank a number of people for the tenth time. It seems those who were instrumental in my first book remain so in my tenth. For the sake of not repeating myself, I'm tempted to truncate this acknowledgment with the words “to all those who I've mentioned before and will mention again”, but that seems a poor way to honour the extraordinary individuals who have travelled with me as navigators, mechanics and passengers on this continuing road trip, and without whose company and skill, I would have long ago been stopped by the side of the road with my bonnet up. I hope you'll indulge me then while I repeat myself and forgive me for the rather trite motoring theme I've used to do so. I am deeply grateful to:

My husband, Michael, who first suggested this route and kept me from getting lost. My boys, Edmund and Atticus, who shout advice from the backseat.

My Dad, who refuels my car from time to time, and who will still drive out to get me when I break down.

My sister Devini who comes along for every ride in the very latest designer racing-gear.

My mother, for whom I can think of no appropriate car-related analogy, but who, at the very beginning, taught me to read.

The Greens and the wonderful team at Pantera Press who are my talented and generous pit crew.

My brilliant agent, Jo Butler, who keeps me headed in the right direction.

Glenda Downing, my editor, who serviced this novel and ensured it was roadworthy. Luke Causby, my cover designer whose genius gives my work a showroom finish; Desanka Vukelich and Graeme Jones who made sure the interior was perfectly detailed.

Leith Henry who knows Rowly so well she could take the wheel at any time… if something happens to me, she'll tell you how it all ends.

Sarah Kynaston who creates detours with ludicrous projects because she knows that I write best when I'm also trying to sculpt a life-size cow out of granny smith apples. Lesley Bocquet (whose name I misappropriated for this novel) and Cheryl Bousfield, who have both worn my team colours since the very first book.

My comrades in the writing community who have always been generous with their knowledge of the road ahead.

The reviewers, bloggers, booksellers and readers whose support has allowed me to be in the position of repeating myself. Thank you for riding with me.

If you enjoyed

Give the Devil His Due

then look out for the next book in the
Rowland Sinclair series
(For Release 2016)

Who would you be in 1934?
Find out now: www.PanteraPress.com/Quiz
#RowlandSinclair

for more information, please visit:
www.PanteraPress.com

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 a farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW, which she shares with her young family and several animals.

Sulari is the author of the award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, a series of historical crime 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 the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for 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 later that year and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for Best Crime Fiction 2013.
Gentlemen Formerly
Dressed
was released in November 2013. The sixth book in the series,
A Murder Unmentioned,
was Highly Commended for the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction 2015, and was shortlisted for the ABIA Small Publisher Adult Book of the Year 2015, and the Ned Kelly Award 2015.
A Murder Unmentioned
also received the 2015 APPA Platinum Award for Excellence.
Give the Devil His Due
is the seventh book in the series.

Under the name S.D. Gentill, Sulari also writes fantasy adventure, including 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 eBook.