Description

Bred to the law. Convicted of stealing four pigs. Transported to the other side of the world.
Ireland, 1819. William Irwin Keon is preparing to claim the lands he believes are rightfully his. Before he can secure his children’s future, he is convicted at the Roscommon Assizes under peculiar circumstances and sentenced to seven years’ transportation to New South Wales.
His wife Catherine is left in Ireland with two young children and an uncertain future. Refusing to surrender their inheritance, she begins a legal battle that her son will continue for years.
Marriages are questioned. Births are disputed. The identities of the heirs are called into doubt.
Two centuries later, Maud Wright returns to her father’s papers. Following letters, court records and forgotten archives across Ireland and beyond, she begins to unravel a tangled history of false claims, inheritance and family secrets.
But proving who your ancestors were can be considerably harder than finding their names.
Based on real events and original documents from Irish and Australian archives, The Theft of Truth is a historical family mystery of transportation, disputed inheritance and one mother’s determination to protect her children’s inheritance.
A Forgotten Histories novel. Can be read on its own or after The Truth of Sheemore.