COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | Turn On, Old Time

Historical crime fiction at its best from the pen of Edmund Bohan

Amidst the chaos engulfing Greece and the Balkans during the Crimean War, a young Englishman and two Indian Army officers commanding a regiment of feared Albanian Bashi-Bazouks, become involved with the Society of the White Rose: a group of young, aristocratic, idealistic – but murderous – revolutionaries, in a series of dramatic events that will decide their fates and shape those who survive for the rest of their lives.

Thirty-four years later, The Society of the White Rose – revived, more powerful than ever before, and led by O’Rorke’s most ruthless and unforgiving enemies, Bogdan Lynskey and Count Zoltan Bathory – return to London: to not only assassinate the distinguished Austrian General, Carl-Heinz Lorenz, due to be honoured by the Queen at Windsor, but to finally destroy O’Rorke and all close to him.

When a distinguished visiting New Zealand businessman is murdered, O’Rorke is once again called in to help by Chief Detective Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard, and the Honourable Algernon Parry – the Home Office’s powerful but shadowy man of many secrets; while O’Rorke’s old friend Colonel Jamieson hurries to London from his home in Paris. But as the circles of intrigue spread ever wider, and new waves of terror threaten to engulf old and new associates alike, O’Rorke begins to distrust even those who seem to be his closest allies. And as so many alliances splinter, O’Rorke’s departure for New Zealand takes on a new and unwelcome urgency: not just for his own sake, but for the safety of all his household.

About the Author

Historian, biographer, novelist and former international operatic and concert singer – Edmund Bohan was born in Christchurch. After graduating from Canterbury University College with an MA Hons in History in 1959, he worked as a research assistant to the Parliamentary Historian Dr A.H. McLintock, and taught English and History before embarking on a singing and freelance writing career in Australia in 1962–1963, and in Britain from 1964 until 1987. During those years he sang throughout Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and in Brazil in over 2000 performances of more than 170 different major choral, operatic and orchestral works, solo recitals and broadcasts for the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Commission and Radio New Zealand. In addition, his first books were published.

After returning to New Zealand in 1987, and encouraged by historians Dr Bill Oliver, Sir Keith Sinclair and Jim Gardner, he resumed his studies of New Zealand’s nineteenth century politics (of which he was soon acknowledged to be a leading authority) and New Zealand’s colonial society and culture. In 1990 he was one of the first recipients of the Ministry of Internal Affairs new Awards in History to write the first biography of New Zealand’s youngest and one of its longest serving Prime Ministers, Edward Stafford; and since then has received a number of writing, research and publishing grants from Creative New Zealand for a succession of non-fiction works. Simultaneously, at the prompting of his then literary agent, Ray Richards, he began the Inspector O’Rorke series of historical novels set mainly in 1880s Christchurch but also in America, Greece and London.

He was the 1995 resident John David Stout Fellow at the Stout Centre, Victoria University of Wellington; lectured for the Continuing Education Department at Canterbury University, and delivered seminars for Canterbury and Victoria University History Departments, and the Stout Centre’s and New Zealand Genealogical Society’s conferences on Irish and Scottish influences on colonial New Zealand.

In the 2019 New Year Honours List, Edmund Bohan was awarded the MNZM for services to music, historical research and literature.

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1. 1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
   2. Competition closes on the 3rd October 2023, winners will be notified via email by 5th October 2023.
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