Sydney 1965. The Beatles are on every radio, and Detective Ray Shearer’s on the take. Shearer acts as muscle for Kings Cross businessman George Shaloub. George has problems. He wants to knock down some terraces in the Cross to build a business centre, but heiress and local newspaper publisher Jenny Wilson is running a high-profile campaign against him. Then one of his prostitutes is found murdered a copycat killing of an horrific rape and murder six years earlier. This is just the beginning of the nightmare: the underworld of cops and crims, arson, drugs and a maelstrom of violence and deceit; of long-hidden secrets that will drive Shearer into a labyrinth of shame, guilt and hate. Only by confronting his own dark secrets can he succeed.
To read an interview with Dave about Big Bad Blood, click here
AUTHOR’S NOTE
My intention for Big Bad Blood was to write a big, complex, muscular crime novel that reflected how I felt about Sydney – a big, muscular city with glitz on the surface and blood beneath. I found in James Elroy’s language the perfect style for what I wanted. Originally, I conceived of this book as being about sets of brothers and this is still a major part of the fabric.
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First published in 1997 by Random House, Sydney, Australia.