The Sandstone Trilogy
These three novels, Unbound Justice, Unshackled and Succession, span 37 years of Sydney life in the second half of the nineteenth century. They follow the fortunes of 20-year-old John Leary, who in 1850 leaves his rural home in Ireland and sails as an assisted immigrant to the Colony of New South Wales.
Thanks to his skill as a carpenter, his hard work and the labour shortage due to the Gold Rush, he rises quickly in the building trade. His ambition is to have his own construction company. This he achieves, but his ambition proves boundless and we are witness to his ruthless progress to become the biggest and the best. The building industry becomes a metaphor for the growing city with its mixture of squalor and grandeur, of corruption and high ideals.
The Sandstone Trilogy, both historical drama and family saga, paints a vivid picture of nineteenth-century Sydney. Love, revenge and tragedy all play a part in the fortunes of John Leary and his family and the wide cast of friends and enemies.
All three novels can be enjoyed as standalone reads.