This trilogy contains previously published works;

The Second Bridegroom
"Hauntingly lyrical and visually stunning, The Second Bridegroom is the spellbinding tale of one man's exile - from family, country, and religion. Set in the early nineteenth century, it tells the story of a young convict transported to Australia, where he escapes into the bush and becomes the centre of a ceremonial journey which he has no means of understanding.

"In exquisitely crafted prose, Hall subtly - sometimes ironically - explores the boundaries of art and illusion, magic and religion, innocence and guilt, savagery and civilization.

"The first novel in a trilogy that concludes with Captivity Captive, The Second Bridegroom is a work of mythic resonance - intensely magical and shimmering with insight. It will confirm Miles Franklin Award winner Rodney Hall's stature as one of our most inspired contemporary writers."

The Grisly Wife
"In this stunning new novel, Rodney Hall tells the story of Catherine Byrne, a nineteenth-century English missionary who travels to remotest Australia with her prophetic husband and his band of women disciples, the Household of Hidden Stars. Named Muley Moloch after the famous Irish lay preacher whose soul he is determined to save, he is a man of miraculous powers who leads his followers through severe hardship - shipwreck, disease and death - in their millenarian quest.

"Set in 1863 at the dawn of the modern era (with photography, steam power and domestic machines such as the lawn mower revolutionizing people's understanding of their world) The Grisly Wife resonates with echoes and presentiments just beneath the surface of colonial Australia.

Captivity Captive
"Two sisters and a brother are found bludgeoned and shot to death in a paddock in 1898. The case is never solved - until Patrick Malone, more than half a century later, decides the time has come to sift the truth from the lies.

"What rises up to haunt us is a huge tribe of a family turned in upon itself, locked in its ignorance of anything else.

"This is a deeply disturbing novel with all the tension of a thriller - about the dark side of the lives and memories of pioneers who carved small farms from the ancient Australian forest."