Vic Hunter

concerns the murder of a New Zealand parliamentarian on a remote sheep farm in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand

During the 1860s, Dave Powers, apprentice to a horse trainer, volunteers to ride Archer to the Melbourne Cup race. Their start is 600 miles from Melbourne, and the journey is anything but easy. Of course, the pair have numerous adventures along the way, and in the end Archer competes in the Melbourne Cup race.

The fate of a young Australian boy is somehow linked with that of a young Roman boy who had traveled to Australia by ship during the time of the Roman Emperor, Nero.