Aboriginal troopers - led by white officers - formed Queensland's Native Police- a much-feared force that was responsible for the deaths of large numbers of Aboriginal people. Secretive by nature, their workings have long been misunderstood. They would often burn their victims and not report their 'dispersals' - a euphemism for mass murders and reprisal killings. But historian Jonathan Richards has spent years studying and documenting the force's brutal dispossession of Aboriginal people from their land. The Secret War is the culmination of his work and is the latest salvo in the History Wars that sees historians, politicians and writers arguing over the extent of Indigenous deaths in frontier clashes. It is an authoritative and groundbreaking contribution to our country's white settlement history.