Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland, Scott's family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand. There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against the Maori in the brutal New Zealand wars. After recovering from a series of serious gunshot wounds, he sails to Australia and becomes a Lay Preacher, captivating churchgoers with his fiery and inspiring sermons. But Scott is also prone to bursts of madness. The local villagers back in Ireland often whispered that a 'wild drop' ran in the blood of the Scott family. One night he dons a mask in a small country town, arms himself with a gun and, dubbing himself Captain Moonlite, brazenly robs a bank before staging one of the country's most audacious jailbreaks. After falling in love with fellow prisoner James Nesbitt, a boyish petty criminal desperately searching for a father figure, Scott finds himself unable to shrug off his criminal past. Pursued and harassed by the police, he stages a dramatic siege and prepares for a final showdown with the law, and a macabre executioner without a nose. Told at a cracking pace, and based on many of the extensive letters Scott wrote from his death cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and sexually-repressed era of Australia in the second half of the 19th century. With a cast of remarkable characters, it weaves together the extraordinary lives of our bushrangers and the desperation of a young nation eager to remove the stains of its convict past. But most of all, Moonlite is a tragic love story.

Contents: Part I. Well have we loved -- This shrinking world -- The hunger and the madness -- Guilty wretches and broken dreams -- The skulls of troubled sons -- 'The most wicked of the wicked' -- Moonlite in the darkness -- His Honour -- The beggar's vice -- Going to the devil, headlong -- Black snakes and bad cheques -- Martyrdom and the legend stripped bare -- Convict blood and a drop of madness -- The gingerbread gaol -- 'I would do everything short of murder' -- Murderers and misfits -- Houses of hate -- This terrible darkness -- 'A war to the knife' -- Part II. Hatred of mankind in their hearts -- Written in blood -- The harp of David -- The siege -- The retreat of the troopers -- The dispenser of death -- The final shootout -- My friends who sleep in your cemetery -- Evil be to him -- All the beautiful flowers -- Falling from a great height -- Epilogue -- Afterword -- Acknowledgements -- A note on sources -- Bibliography -- Index.

''The tragic love story of Captain Moonlite and the bloody end of the bushrangers''--Cover. Includes bibliographical references and index.