Looking for a historical crime series to spend your summer with? Look no further than the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries by award-winning author Sulari Gentill.
Set in the 1930s when Australian politics were rife with tension, the eponymous series follows the witty Roland “Rowly” Sinclair, a wealthy, bohemian artist-cum-amateur-detective, around the world, everywhere from England to Shanghai, as he both unravels and finds himself embroiled in a number of murders.
Author Sulari Gentill crafts a colorful world with sweeping journeys through the Australian Outback and across oceans on the historic RMS Aquitania while breathing life into a doggedly determined and wryly humorous protagonist you can’t help but root for.
If you consider yourself a traditional mystery buff or a crime fiction fan of the likes of Rhys Bown and Kerry Greenwood, this series is for you.
For a taste of this rollicking adventure, check out all ten books in the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries below!
A Few Right Thinking Men
It’s 1931 in Sydney, Australia, and Rowland Sinclair is the black sheep of his family, a problem that’s only made worse when the one person who understands him is found murdered in his home.
Uncle Rowly, after whom Rowland is named, has died brutally, and the authorities are completely inept, pinning the blame on an elderly housekeeper which points to a larger cover-up.
Instead, Rowland turns to the salon of artists he lives with to watch his six while he investigates the crime that turns into a conspiracy bigger than he could have ever anticipated.
Short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, this fast-paced series opener takes us on a journey through the radical politics of Depression-era Australia and cements how well-versed in history Gentill is.
A Decline in Prophets
After a stay in Europe, Rowland Sinclair finds himself a passenger on the glamorous luxury liner RMS Aquitania alongside a ruthless killer, and this time, he is fingered as a suspect.
Following a diverse cast of characters, including an Irish Catholic Bishop and Rowland’s amateur sleuth pals from book one, who by now feel like old friends, Sinclair must work to clear his name in the death of the Bishop’s young niece.
However, the crime doesn’t stop when the ship docks, and Rowly and his rag-tag team are sure to follow.
This installment explores the divide between Catholics and Protestants and forces Rowland Sinclair to reconcile his wealth against his political leanings which favor the Left.
Miles Off Course
Follow Rowland Sinclair and his live-in pals on a journey through the Australian Outback when a Sinclair family stockman goes missing in the high country.
The third installment of the series offers all the elements of a traditional American Western, including a merciless group of back-country villains, while still maintaining the signature series flair.
Miles Off Course delves deeper into the conflict between Rowly and his conservative older brother, Wilfred, who wants Rowland more involved in their familial duties, a push-and-pull tension that makes for a propulsive story you won’t want to miss.
Paving the New Road
Shortlisted for the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction for 2013, Paving the New Road continues to capture the fabric of society in Australia in the 1930s.
However, there is a new threat of fascism as the political Right of Australia both gains traction and separates into what is known as the Old Guard and the New Guard. A split was made because members of the New Guard desire more public visibility compared to the Old Guard, who work in secret.
Perhaps the darkest of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, the fourth installment features famous historical figures like Eric Cambell, leader of the New Guard, as he vies for a meeting with Adolf Hitler and follows Rowly as the Old Guard propositions him to investigate the murder of the man they had watching Cambell.
If you were hoping for an incisively plotted spy thriller in this series, this one is for you.
Gentlemen Formerly Dressed
Delving into the dark side of British high society, Gentlemen Formerly Dressed follows Rowly and his friends to England where an aristocrat has been stabbed with a sword and left for dead inside his club.
With a death as strange as this, Rowland must dig deeper, and soon the Australians find themselves in over their heads.
Featuring more famous historical figures like Winston Churchill and H.G. Wells, the fifth installment of the series observes Rowland, a Left-leaning artist born of the wealthy, conservative Right, as he is finally moved to take a political stance.
Meanwhile, things continue to heat up with Edna, a member of Rowly’s artist posse, who might just be the love of his life.
A Murder Unmentioned
Shortlisted for the Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015, A Murder Unmentioned subverts tradition by holding the magnifying glass to the Sinclair family for once, shining light on dark secrets hidden in their past.
When a murder weapon is found at the bottom of a drained dam, it’s revealed that Rowly may have been involved in his father’s murder when he was a teenager.
And in true Rowland Sinclair fashion, he handles these accusations exactly how one might expect: he rallies his friends, grabs his yellow Mercedes and a Gypsy Moth plane, and sets off for the Southern Tablelands of Australia to clear his name.
An investigation into the Sinclair family history and a murder that will shock even the most astute mystery readers, A Murder Unmentioned is hailed as one of the strongest installments in the series.
Give the Devil His Due
Rowland, his Mercedes, and his menagerie of artist friends head to the dangerous Maroubra Speedway for a charity race for the Red Cross when suddenly bodies begin to drop, starting with the discovery of an Australian journalist who was set to cover the race.
Rowly is the last person to have seen the journalist, found murdered in a House of Horrors, alive, and it soon becomes clear that his safety is in jeopardy, too.
As the death toll rises, suspicion mounts and Rowly must reconcile the possibility that the culprit is one of his cherished friends.
Give the Devil His Due is as vibrant and fast-paced as the cars whipping around the Raceway that’s earned itself the nickname of the Killer Track!
A Dangerous Language
Eager for an excuse to purchase a new plane, Rowly gets himself in deep when he offers to fly a Czech novelist to a speaking engagement in Melbourne.
What Rowly doesn’t know is that Egon Kisch, a real historical figure who opposed Hitler and staunchly supported communism, has been forbidden by the government from stepping on Australian soil.
When another communist figure is murdered on the steps of Parliament in response, Rowland realizes that Right-wing extremists will do anything to ensure Australia does not hear Kisch’s message.
The struggle between communism and fascism in Australia reaches a fever pitch in this one, all the while one of Rowly’s old romantic flames comes back into the picture threatening to unravel the romance carefully cultivated between Rowly and Edna throughout the series.
Shanghai Secrets
Rowly has made an enemy of Robert Menzies, the governor-general of Australia, and in the ninth installment of the series, Wilfred sends him away on family business to keep him out of trouble.
Tasked with nothing more than keeping a low profile, Rowly and his friends head to Shanghai, but everything goes belly-up when a girl who claimed to be the long-lost Princess Anastasia Romanova is found murdered in Rowly’s suite.
Once again tasked with clearing his name, Rowland Sinclair dives into the underworld of Shanghai, where corruption runs deep and drug lords rule all, and he learns the city will destroy him if he lets it.
Where There's a Will
This 2021 Ned Kelly Award Nominee for Best Crime Fiction rounds out the series with a bang when an American millionaire is murdered in Harvard Yard and Rowly is named the executor of his estate.
Rowland Sinclair soon finds himself in America investigating with his friends like always while brushing elbows with visionaries of the time, including Marion Davies, Randolph Hearst, F. Scott, and Zelda Fitzgerald, and with the Irish and Italian Mobs.
A story set among opulent parties and glamorous lifestyles, this installment brings a rare cozy edge to the series and will surely leave you hopeful for number eleven.
