Michelle de Kretser’s The Hamilton Case Re-Released as a Text Classic

Lovely to see a new edition of Michelle de Kretser’s The Hamilton Case (Text Classics), the award-winning 2003 literary novel set in 1930s colonial Ceylon. The story follows Sam Obeysekere, an Oxford-educated lawyer whose life becomes entwined with a sensational murder investigation when Angus Hamilton, an English tea planter, is shot dead on an isolated jungle path, and his estate wages are stolen. Sam Obeysekere, a staunch believer in British justice, takes a personal interest in the crime and secures fame by developing a theory that Hamilton’s wife engineered the murder. While the sensational case makes Sam’s name, his life ultimately spirals into professional and personal disappointment as his pro-colonial ideals clash with a changing world.