Benedict Lovelace and the Travelling Show

Benedict Lovelace engages 19-year-old Tommy Turkin to do some rat catching, renovations, and recruiting for his bold new ‘project’. Minnie Dix joins Tommy to provide some much-needed domestic help for his expanding troupe, which numbers ten when Johnny Sharp arrives. Tommy Turkin’s ‘Golden Boys’ train hard, swim well, and learn a host of new skills in Old Fremantle without really knowing what their role is going to be.

Christmas and New Year bring further surprises, and at the end of January, 1898 the Travelling Show, expanded by Silas Appleyard and his ‘Gospel Group’, head for the West Australian goldfields. As they progress town by town towards Kalgoorlie, not everyone in the ‘unofficial gold capital’ of Australia looks forward to their arrival.

Michael Doyle and ‘Old Man’ Casey anticipate the problems that Benedict Lovelace and Travelling Show may bring. They try to enlist the help of the goldfields policeman, Sergeant O’Malley, and his assistant Constable Thompson, with limited success.

A blind boy, Jimmy Gimmick, and his guide dog, Sam, further complicate matters, which race to a conclusion involving deception and death.

Will this spell the end for the Master Showman, Benedict Lovelace, and his troupe, or does he still have some tricks up his sleeve?