We are very pleased to welcome Catherine McCullagh in 2026 to celebrate the launch of her latest novel, Murder and Masquerade. Barbie Robinson of Living Arts Canberra will join Catherine in conversation on the evening.

So you’re planning to tackle a nest of Nazis by yourself - except that you’ll be accompanied by a former SS general you loathe and distrust who could still be a devoted follower of the late lamented Führer ...

Having survived an invasion and an occupation, Irish policeman and former resistance leader Brendan O’Connor embarks on another impossible mission. It’s London, 1946, and a fascist plot threatens Britain’s precarious democracy. In a race against time, O’Connor hunts the plotters along a trail of blood and treachery, finding an unlikely ally in the man he hates obsessively, his former SS boss.

Murder and Masquerade is alternate history, a tale of ruthless killing and betrayal. But it is also a tale of loyalty, friendship - and a double-cross that forces O’Connor into the most difficult decision of his life. Only his bloody-minded determination will prevent a return to tyranny and finally deliver him justice.

Catherine McCullagh is a highly respected editor and author. She has worked as an editor and advisor on numerous military and Australian history books and has two published works to her name, Willingly into the Fray, a narrative history of the first 100 years of Australian Army nursing, and War Child, the true story of a woman who grew up in pre-war Germany, which she ghost-wrote for Annette Janic. Dancing with Deception is her first novel.
She completed a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) at the Australian National University before joining the Army as a teacher and linguist. After a 20-year career she left the military to follow her other passion - military history.

Contact the host of Book Launch: Murder and Masquerade by Catherine McCullagh

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