Get Rich Quick

'I didn't spot the body until I was about to dive in. He was floating face down, the water around him streaked with red. He looked like William Holden in that film, except this fellow was big, and he wasn t talking about how he got there . . .' -- Meet Billy Glasheen, a fresh new voice in crime fiction. It's Sydney, the 1950s, and Billy's trying to make a living, any way he can. Luckily, he's a likeable guy, with a gift for masterminding elaborate scenarios whether it's a gambling scam, transporting a fortune in stolen jewels, or keeping the wheels greased during the notorious down-under tour by Little Richard and his rock'n'roll entourage. But trouble follows close behind perhaps because Billy's schemes always seem to interfere with the plans of Sydney's big players, an unholy trinity of crooks, bent cops, and politicians on the make. Suddenly he's in the frame for murder, and on the run from the police, who'll happily send him down for it. Billy's no sleuth, but there's nowhere to turn for help. To prove it wasn't him, he ll have to find the real killer.

Literature & Fiction

Doyle, Peter

United States

Dark Passage

August 1945: the Japanese have surrendered and there's dancing in the streets of Sydney. But Billy Glasheen has little time to celebrate; his black marketeer boss has disappeared, leaving Billy high and dry. Soon he s on the run from the criminals and the cops, not to mention a shady private army. They all think he has the thing they want, and they'll kill to get hold of it. Unfortunately for Billy, he doesn't know what it is . . . but he'd better find it fast. Set in Australia in the years following World War II, Peter Doyle's novels brilliantly explore the criminal underworld, political corruption, and the postwar explosion of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll.

The Devil's Jump

Meet Billy Glasheen, a fresh voice in crime fiction. It’s Sydney, the 1950s, and Billy’s trying to make a living, any way he can. Luckily, he’s a likeable guy, with a gift for masterminding elaborate scenarioswhether it’s a gambling scam, transporting a fortune in stolen jewels, or keeping the wheels greased during a hair-raising tour by Little Richard and his rock n’ roll entourage.But trouble follows close behindbecause Billy’s schemes always seem to interfere with the plans of Sydney’s big players, an unholy trinity of crooks, bent cops, and politicians on the make. Suddenly he’s in the frame for murder, and on the run from the police, who’ll happily send him down for it. Billy’s no sleuth, but there’s nowhere to turn for help. To prove it wasn’t him, he’ll have to find the real killer.Set in Sydney in the period following World War II, Doyle’s novelsfeaturing the irresistible Billy Glasheenbrilliantly explore the criminal underworld, high-level political corruption, and the postwar explosion of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.

Brisbane, 1943. A provincial Australian city has turned almost overnight into the main Allied staging post for the war in the Pacific. The social, sexual, and racial tensions stirred up by the arrival of tens of thousands of US troops provoke all kinds of mayhem, and Brisbane’s once quiet streets are suddenly looking pretty mean. Enter P.I. Jack Munro, a World War I veteran and ex-cop with a nose for trouble and a stubborn dedication to exposing the truth, however inconvenient it might be for those in charge. He’s not always an especially good man, but he’s the one you want on your side when things look bad. When Jack's hired by a knockout blonde to find her no-good missing husband, he turns over a few rocks he isn't supposed to, and the questions start to pile up, along with the bodies. Not inclined to take no for an answer, he forges on through the dockside bars, black-market warehouses, and segregated brothels of his roiling city, uncovering more than a few surprises in this murky tale based on actual events in a little-known corner of the WW2 theatre.

Coorparoo Blues and the Irish Fandango

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Manson, G. S.

Mystery

Sydney, 1959. Billy Glasheen is flogging mail order schemes from a back room in Chinatown. Hey, it's a living. But unsettled accounts in his past are coming due. An ultimatum is delivered: come up with a small fortune in hush money, or cop a bullet and a shallow grave. Time to call in all debts and favours, but just when he needs them most, Bill's old gang of beatniks and bandits have made themselves strangely scarce. Amaze Your Friends is a dark, wild ride through a city of easy money and sudden falls, high times and hangovers, jukebox rock'n'roll and the lowdown flophouse blues.

Amaze Your Friends (Dark Passage)

June Wright wrote this lost gem in the mid-1950s, but consigned it to her bottom drawer after her publisher foolishly rejected it. Perhaps it was a little ahead of its time? Because while it’s a tour de force of the classic country-house murder mystery, it’s also a delightful romp, poking fun at the conventions of the genre. When someone takes advantage of a duck hunt to murder publisher Athol Sefton at a remote hunting inn, it soon turns out that virtually everyone, guests and staff alike, had a good reason for shooting him. Sefton’s nephew Charles thinks he can solve the crime by applying the rules of the game” he’s absorbed from his years as a reviewer of detective fiction only the killer evidently isn’t playing by those rules. Duck Season Death is a both a fiendishly clever whodunit and a marvelous entertainment.

Duck Season Death

Wright, June

Literary

First published in 1948, when it was the best-selling mystery of the year in the author’s native Australia, Murder in the Telephone Exchange stars feisty young operator Maggie Byrnes. When one of her more unpopular colleagues is murdered her head bashed in with a buttinsky,” a piece of equipment used to listen in on phone calls Maggie resolves to turn sleuth. Some of her coworkers are acting strangely, and Maggie is convinced she has a better chance of figuring out who is responsible for the killing than the rather stolid police team assigned to the case, who seem to think she herself might have had something to do with it. But then one of her friends is murdered too, and it looks like Maggie might be next. Narrated with verve and wit, this is a whodunit in the tradition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey, by turns entertaining and suspenseful, and building to a gripping climax.

Murder in the Telephone Exchange

Grizzled homicide detective Bernie Burnout” Farrell heads the hunt for a serial killer who is murdering call girls around Times Square. Hoping to set up a stakeout, Farrell recruits tall, blonde, ambitious rookie cop Gladyss Chronou for the investigation. But Gladyss believes her mystical yoga practice can give her an intuitive edge in solving the crimes and sees mythological patterns in the suspects and events they’re investigating. Bernie thinks she’s nuts, but then, he's a little too grounded. In fact, he's on a steady downward spiral: his wife is divorcing him, his longtime partner just died of AIDS, and he's developed a nagging cough since working down at Ground Zero. Gladyss of the Hunt oscillates between chilly street realism and new age mysticism. As their investigation takes Bernie and Gladyss from arty society gatherings to shabby hotels and SROs, the narrative offers a suspenseful, often wittily satirical account of a city that is flashy and glamorous one moment, dark and violent the next.

Gladyss of the Hunt

Nersesian, Arthur

June Wright's most memorable detective, Mother Paul, might seem a bit otherworldly, but little escapes the kindly nun - she has a shrewd grasp of all that goes on in the hostel for young women she runs in 1950s Melbourne. The atmosphere is already strained by a spate of anonymous letters, when Mary Allen finds a stranger stabbed to death in the garden. Then one of the girls drowns, an apparent suicide, and the tension reaches fever pitch. Is there a connection between the two deaths and the letters? The police investigate, but Mother Paul pursues her own enquiries.

Reservation for Murder

Mother Paul returns to her sleuthing ways in June Wright's second mystery featuring the inimitable nun detective.

Faculty of Murder: Mother Paul Investigates

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Books by Dark Passage

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Dark Passage publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Get Rich Quick

The Devil's Jump

Get Rich Quick

Coorparoo Blues and the Irish Fandango

Amaze Your Friends (Dark Passage)

Duck Season Death

Murder in the Telephone Exchange

Gladyss of the Hunt

Reservation for Murder

Faculty of Murder: Mother Paul Investigates