The Death of John Lacey

TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER PAGE PRAISE TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT PAGE AUTHOR’S NOTE DEDICATION CONTENTS I: 1870 THE DEATH OF JOHN LACEY 1 II: 1847 ERNST JAMES MONTAGUE AND JOE MONTAGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 III: 1853 THE CONQUEST OF JOHN LACEY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 IV: 1870 ERNST JAMES MONTAGUE ABANDONS JOE MONTAGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 V: 1870 THE WIDE DESTRUCTIVE PATH OF GILBERT DELANEY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 VI: 1870 THE LEGACY OF ERNST JAMES MONTAGUE 1 2 VII: 1870 THE NARROW GATE OF GILBERT DELANEY 1 2 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR GUIDE Cover Page Title Page Table of Contents Start LIST OF PAGES i ii iii iv v vii 1 3 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 329 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 344 
 
 Praise for The Death of John Lacey
 ‘A powerful morality tale that evokes the hopes and brutalities of Australia’s frontier with clarity, depth and empathy. Ben Hobson is a great writer. This is a great book.’ Chris Hammer, author of The Tilt
 ‘Where the Ballarat diggings meet Deadwood. Elegantly written and deeply unsettling, The Death of John Lacey is a gripping, evocative moral exploration of colonial violence, greed and dispossession on the Victorian goldfields.’ Paul Daley, author of Jesustown
 ‘Hobson shows us the frontier as it really was—a place full of human complexity. A brutal story, lyrically told.’ Rohan Wilson, author of The Roving Party
 ‘A gritty and richly evocative tale of loyalty, greed, dislocation and mercy set against the dark lawlessness and brutality of Australia’s colonial past. A story about the takers and taken-from, and the deep gulf of violence and inequality that lies in between.’ Dinuka McKenzie, author of The Torrent
 ‘Both spare and tender, The Deathof John Lacey reveals the bloodied seams that run through Australia’s colonial history. Utterly heartbreaking.’ Nigel Featherstone, author of My Heart is a Little Wild Thing
 ‘A ripping, unflinching reckoning with Australia’s past. Hobson turns the popular national mythos on its head and, with guns blazing, creates one of his own.’ Bram Presser, author of The Book of Dirt
 ‘Exceptional. I couldn’t put it down.’ Kyle Perry, author of The Deep
 Praise for Snake Island
 ‘Darkly illuminating … Hobson writes as if his life depends on it. Snake Island is an engrossing literary thriller that engages with pressing contemporary issues while exploring timeless questions.’ The Weekend Australian
 ‘Set before the rise of smartphones, the events of Snake Island are all the more suffocating for their technological isolation. There is such weight to the narrative, such a sense of impending doom, that you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.’ Australian Crime Fiction
 ‘Snake Island not only contains all the elements [of a Western] but it fairly revels in them. Hobson pulls no punches, letting us see into the minds of all his characters until we know them intimately, and building slowly but inexorably to a climax that is as tragic as it is inevitable … An engaging, entertaining read.’ Glam Adelaide
 ‘[Hobson’s] spare, muscular writing is captivating; and in the end, the scales are evenly weighted: corruption, rage and revenge are counterbalanced by loyalty, faith and redemption.’ The Saturday Paper
 Praise for To Become a Whale
 ‘A powerful tale of fathers and sons and all that can’t be spoken between them. The writing is honest, rich and clean, and it made me feel so much. Too many writers fuss things up, but Ben tells it simply, which is so affecting.’ Sofie Laguna, author of Miles Franklin–winning The Eye of the Sheep
 ‘Hobson takes us to the depths of cruelty to show us life. A boy tries to be a man, a man tries to be a father, and both struggle to navigate what it means to be men. A great study in masculinity.’ Willy Vlautin, author of Lean