Frederick Wordsworth Ward, better known as 'Captain Thunderbolt', had one of the longest bushranging 'careers' in history. Plaguing New South Wales for almost seven years, he enjoyed much public support as he was intelligent, and charming. This book describes some of Thunderbolt's exploits and refutes many of the popular myths that surround him.

This is a sequel to the first volume. The book is set during the period of bushranging in Australia. Excerpt: For some time after the robbery of the Escort at Eugowra Rocks, Hall, Gilbert, and O'Meally kept away from their usual haunts; but were by no means idle during their temporary seclusion, and not a few cases of "sticking-up" in lonely parts of the bush roads in the Lachlan district were, not without reason, charged against one or other of them by the authorities and the public. While the fate of their late companions—Mann, Bow, and Fordyce—was hanging in the balance they were arranging fresh plots under the very noses of the police. As in the case of Gardiner, a perfect system of "bush telegraphy" had been established in every locality where their friends resided; and as they invariably moved with a given object from their hiding places, and either returned direct to the place from which they had started or made for some other friendly shelter in another direction, they were always in touch with their "telegraphs" and were thus kept posted in every movement made by the force whose aim it was to capture them.

From the first convict runaways to the spectacular showdown that ended Ned Kelly's career, Evan McHugh delivers true tales of daring exploits and a cast of roguish characters who blazed their place into Australian history. These are incredible stories of the men - and women - who achieved fame not just by what they did, but by the way they did it, many of them lifting themselves from downtrodden underdogs to self-made heroes. There are heroic figures like Cash and Company, the prince of bushrangers Matthew Brady, Bold Jack Donohue, brave Ben Hall, Captain Thunderbolt and of course, Ned Kelly. But there are also villains like Pearce the Cannibal, Jeffries the Monster and 'Mad Dog' Morgan. Bushrangers is as fast paced as a stolen thoroughbred and as arresting as a squad of troopers. Through extensive first-hand accounts and gripping detail about Australia's lawless past, bestselling author Evan McHugh brings a fresh perspective to a turbulent era of crime, defiance and emerging Australia identity.