Author’s Note

The Emma Berry mysteries are set in the 1870s on the Murray River, the third longest navigable river in the world, surpassed only by the Amazon and the Nile. Its great navigable length was responsible for the development of the riverboats, the side-wheel paddle steamers that opened up the Australian countryside along the river’s length to settlement and sheep farming, in much the way railways did in the wider countryside.

Indeed, it was the railways that eventually ended the glory days of the paddle steamers, though they continue to ply the waters in the 21^st century, carrying tourists and holiday makers. Two generations of my father’s family produced working riverboat captains. But this story is strictly fiction.

Death in Disguise is the fifth title in this series.