Angel or Mercy

By Ken MacKenzie

Ex Sergeant Craig "Johnno" Johnson of the New South Wales Corps, better known, as the infamous Rum Corps is the owner of the Palace, a salubrious Tavern and brothel situated in the Rocks area of Sydney in 1802. Johnson and his tough Irish rebel enforcer Steven James Forbes killed Lieutenant Somersby-Jones, a much-hated officer of the Corps who had it in for both Johnson and Forbes, in a fire in a bond store, full of illegal alcohol owned by corrupt officers of the Rum Corps. The two scoundrels in an attempt to cover the disappearance of Somersby-Jones used the body of a drunken down and out, womanizing, syphilis ridden ex-convict named Kenneth MacKenzie as a stand in for the Lieutenant. Making it appear that Somersby-Jones had necked himself after being jilted by a supposed lover, another Officer of the Corps.

Doctor Colin Dart, a close friend of Johnson's is summoned to the scene of the suicide of Somersby-Jones and soon suspects that the body isn't in fact Somersby-Jones. Later that same night the Doctor is called to the rape and murder of a woman of low virtue, Jane Miller. Doctor Dart confides in Johnson about the two deaths in close proximity to one another, both on the same night and his suspicion that Somersby-Jone's body was not that of the Lieutenant's. Now faced with the possible exposure of Somersby-Jones actual death and faked suicide, Johnson offers the Doctor his professional help in making subtle inquiries into the two, what Johnson says are possibly connected murders before the Doctor is due to reports his findings to the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony Colonel William Paterson. But a third dead body, found murdered in the Colony causes Johnson and Forbes to have to reinvent a whole new story, that Somersby-Jones is alive and well, and having lost his mind after being Jilted, is the person responsible for raping and killing people in the Colony.
Johnson and Forbes now thinking that they are both in the clear with these new murders muddying the waters around Somersby-Jones faked suicide assume the investigation will now be taken over by the New South Wales Corps. Johnson tells Doctor Dart to inform the Lieutenant Governor of what Johnson's unofficial inquires have revealed. But turn of events finds Johnson suddenly called back into the ranks of the Rum Corps by the Lieutenant Governor to officially investigate Lieutenant Somersby-Jones supposed faked death and these rape and murders now plaguing the Colony.

Soon more victims start to appear in this wild who done it and Johnson and Forbes must catch and kill this murderer before he continues his lust for blood and make it appear that the killer is Lieutenant Somersby-Jones in an effort to save their own necks.

A raunchy R rated fast paced Aussie Crime Fiction Who Done It, full of twists, murder, mayhem, sex and violence

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GXW921XK
• ISBN13: 9798258106797
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"