The Unmourned (Meg and Tom Keneally)

The Unmourned 

Book 2 Monsarrat Series

by Meg and Tom Keneally

ISBN 9780857989390

 In the second instalment of the Monsarrat series, we see Monsarrat given the task of solving who murdered the man responsible for law and order in the Women's prison at Parramatta, New South Wales. His employment of Mrs Mulrooney as his housemaid and meal maker has a fortunate flipside. She is able to be the eyes and ears inside the prison in a way that is impossible for a male. She helps the wife of a former magistrate to make things comfortable for the women in the time between the old governor and new governor come to Sydney.
But Mrs Mulrooney has her suspicions about strange activity and fear among the women and puts her life at risk to get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile Monsarrat is subject to his boss's requirements to get the investigation over. In fact he becomes more restricted because of the illegal sly grog that is the business of a few strongly and highly placed individuals who ensure that he is not allowed to follow certain leads openly.
The risk, as always, is that he will lose his ticket of leave and his free status and thus his means of survival and betterment in the colony.