 Like Hornung 's first novel , Tiny <unk> had Australia as a backdrop and also used the plot device of an Australian woman in a culturally alien environment . The Australian theme was present in his next four novels : The Boss of <unk> ( 1894 ) , The <unk> Guest ( 1894 ) , Irralie 's Bushranger ( 1896 ) and The Rogue 's March ( 1896 ) . In the last of these Hornung wrote of the Australian convict transport system , and showed evidence of a " growing fascination with the motivation behind criminal behaviour and a deliberate sympathy for the criminal hero as a victim of events " , while Irralie 's Bushranger introduced the character Stingaree , an Oxford @-@ educated , Australian gentleman thief , in a novel that " casts doubt on conventional responses " to a positive criminal character , according to Hornung 's biographer , Stephen Knight . 
