Never to be Obeid

 

Red-hot!! Excellent condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The story of one of Australia's earliest terrorist attacks

 

Mint condition. PB. 328pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The engrossing real life story of how Queen Victoria's favourite son, Prince Alfred, undertook the most ambitious Royal tour, only for Australia's overwhelming joy of having the first Royal on its shores jolted by his decadent behaviour, then shocked by an attempted assassination by a man trained as a priest.

The British Empire's youngest and most distant outpost found itself at the epicentre of a new crime and empirical fears about the first inter-continental terrorist group, a conspiracy and a 'lone wolf '. In a resulting 'reign of terror' extraordinary steps were taken to safeguard security with laws on treason and sedition which even the Queen felt went too far, and the would-be assassin was hastily executed in a miscarriage of justice led by opportunistic politicians.

This is an extraordinary and atmospheric weaving of the stories - some detailed for the first time - of royal intrigue, sexual appetite, religious bigotry, patriotic vengeance, naked ambition, national security and moral panic. They are stories of royals, immigrants, archbishops, republicans and the founding fathers of Australia and issues that remain with us today.

Drawing on Royal, British and Australian archives, the compelling narrative embraces a pivotal time in the evolution of Australia, and on the 150th anniversary reveals how a minute of madness rocked the country to its foundations, with a legacy which helped shape Australia's history and continues to influence and challenge us today.

Revelations' & insights in The Prince and the Assassin

• Prince Alfred's spare heir upbringing as 'the chosen one' and prospective King of Australia
• Sexually decadent royal behaviour
• An historic tour which became the model for 50 subsequent royal tours to Aust
• Religious bigotry, violence and death in early Aust
• How a young migrant trained and destined to be a priest became an assassin
• How the biggest crime in Australia shocked, shamed, terrorised and divided the country
• How Henry Parkes, 'founder of federation', suppressed and doctored evidence, hired private spies and criminals for political advantage
• Australia suppressing civil liberties, even making it a crime of treason to discuss republicanism and to not drink a toast to the Queen
• Australian Catholics accused of disloyalty and an Archbishop conspiring against the Government
• Australia's most sensational trial, one of injustice and vengeance for a crime not on the Empire's capital list
• Alfred appealing for his would-be killer to not be executed
• An Australian Government accused of promoting fear for political advantage and committing treason and fraud

How occupation flooded Afghanistan with narcotics

 

Mint condition. PB. 464pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

An in-depth investigation into the heroin trade in Afghanistan—including who runs it, who's profiting, and who's lives are caught in the balance
 
Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer of opium and its offshoot, heroin—all under the noses of Western civil and military stakeholders. 

At the nexus of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, truth is as elusive and fragile as the new democracy itself, now on the brink of being consumed by an expanding mire of chaos. 

Stranger in a strange land, Gregor Salmon entered the war-torn country alone and spent eight months investigating Afghanistan's dependence on poppy, investigating questions such as: Who depends on poppy profits? And who pays the ultimate cost? 

Along the way he encountered Afghans whose lives were intimately tied to the trade: farmers, harvesters, eradicators, smugglers, police, doctors, addicts, warlords, gun-runners, politicians—even a pop-song loving Taliban commander. 

The result is a tense, fascinating, and deeply moving journey along the narcotics trail, and a story about keeping your sanity in a senseless world.

What is it like to have a father who is a murderer?

 

Mint condition. Based on the award-winning podcast. PB. 272pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

This was Nina Young’s shocking realisation in her mid-twenties, when she found out from online court records that her estranged father, Allan Ladd, had strangled a woman to death decades before. In prison he’d met Denise, Nina’s mother, who was his tutor. Although Denise didn’t know the extent of Allan’s crime when she fell in love with him, by the time she found out, she was in too deep. She had to flee from him before Nina turned two.

A decade after reading the court records, Nina, now a journalist, decided to release a podcast to tackle the questions she’d been asking herself ever since. How did her mother fall in love with a murderer? What happened to Conan, Nina’s estranged half-brother, who spent his formative years in Allan’s care? How much do your origins determine your destiny?

This is the story behind the podcast, taking Nina on a cross-country journey to retrace her steps. It is also Denise’s story, of falling in love with a charismatic, intelligent prisoner who turned out to be violent and callous. Unburdening herself of the stigma she carried with her for thirty years, Denise writes of what it took to leave and rebuild her life in the wake of the destruction Allan caused.

SOLD From the author who brought you Rumpole of the Bailey ...

 

SOLD

Excellent condition. PB. 372pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The creator of the irrepressible barrister-sleuth, Rumpole of the Old Bailey, presents a superb collection of classic tales of mystery and suspense. With stories by such authors as P.D. James and Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe and John Mortimer himself, this anthology explores new dimensions in crime writing.

One of the biggest scandals in Australian criminal law

 

Very good condition. PB. Underbelly meets Molly's Game - the true crime investigation that rewrote the story of Melbourne's infamous gangland war and triggered a royal commission.

Melbourne's gangland war was an era dominated by murders, stings, hits, drug busts, corruption and greed - inspiring bestselling books and even a popular TV series, Underbelly. It took the police a decade to curtail the violence and bring down criminal kingpins Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and their accomplices. When the police finally closed the case file, just how they really won the war, with the help of an unlikely police informer, would become a closely guarded secret and its exposure, the biggest legal scandal of our time.

Lawyer X is the scandalous, true story of how a promising defence barrister from a privileged background broke all the rules - becoming both police informer and her client's lover - sharing their secrets and shaping the gangland war that led to sensational arrests and convictions. The story of how Nicola Gobbo became Lawyer X, and why, is a compelling study in desperation and determination.

Lawyer X is the definitive story of Melbourne's gangland wars and its most glamorous and compelling central character, based on the ground-breaking work of investigative journalists Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, who broke the story for the Herald Sun in 2014, and their five-year struggle to reveal the truth about the identity of Lawyer X.

Mafia in the Australian outback

 

Mint condition. PB. 312pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The story behind the murder that shocked a nation.

'Donald Mackay was not just an innocent victim tragically struck down by a criminal act. He was a casualty of the actual fight against organised crime ... killed on active service, as it were ... His name should never be forgotten, his passing must not be allowed to be in vain.'

The assassination of Donald Mackay was meant to solve a problem for the mafia. Instead it roused the law-abiding citizens of Griffith to fight against the powerful criminal elements who had made their town synonymous with drugs and murder.

Drawing on the personal diaries and memories of Terry Jones - who, as the editor of the local newspaper, knew everyone and heard everything - The Griffith Wars reveals startling new evidence about one of Australia's most notorious unsolved murders. It also powerfully recounts the struggle for the soul of a country town still battling to shake off its criminal past.

About the authors

Tom Gilling's acclaimed novels, The Sooterkin, Miles McGinty and Dreamland have all been published in Australia, as well as in London and New York. His is co-author with Clive Small of the highly successful Smack Express, Blood Money, Evil Life and The Dark Side.

Terry Jones was a friend of Donald Mackay, a long-time resident of Griffith and editor of The Area News and The Griffith Times. His diaries form the basis of this book.

SOLD A history of political violence

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 726pp. $28 including postage anywhere in Australia.

These were the crimes that were meant to change the world, and sometimes did.

The book connects the killing of the Kennedys or the murder that sparked the First World War with less well-known stories, such as the Berlin shooting of an instigator of the Armenian genocide or the attack on an American 'robber baron'.

Taking in Malcolm X and Queen Victoria, Adolf Hitler and Andy Warhol, Charles Manson and Emma Goldman, Tsars, Presidents, and pop stars, Age of Assassins traces the process that turned thought into action and murder into an icon.

In tackling the history of political violence, the book is unique in its range and attention to detail, summoning up an age of assassination that is far from over.

Married to the mafia

 

Very good condition. PB. 310pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

When Lynda Lustig met Louie Milito, she was a sixteen-year-old high-school dropout with a taste for adventure and an agonizing childhood.

When they were married two years later, he was not yet a "made man" in the powerful Gambino crime family. Louie was a hairdresser who dabbled in petty thievery.

But Lynda was so happy to be out of her domineering mother's loveless house. And over the years, she was willing to forgive her husband for anything: his violent rages, his frequent absences, his shady associates, and the blood on his hands.

For twenty-four years Lynda Milito remained loyal to this charming and dangerous criminal -- her children's father and close friend of crime boss John Gotti and underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano.

But in 1988, Louie Milito disappeared, murdered by the very people he had always trusted to protect him.

A crime story, a family story, a love story, "Mafia Wife" is the shockingly intimate, brutally honest tale of a survivor -- and of the life she lived in the dark bosom of the underworld.

The story of a criminal lawyer turned criminal

Mint condition. PB. 256pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From 1975 to 2001, Andrew Fraser was a leading criminal solicitor with a successful national practice. Then it all went horribly wrong. 

In 1999 he was charged with being knowingly concerned with the importation of a commercial quantity of cocaine. Fraser pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing, trafficking a small quantity, and using cocaine over a period of time. He was sentenced to seven years in maximum security prison. 

Court in the Middle describes his early years - growing up in a family of lawyers, running hard to build a criminal law practice; his successful years with a national practice, and defending high profile, sometimes notorious, clients. 

He also discusses his relationship with cocaine, addiction and deals, crime and punishment, and the shocking details of his time spent in a maximum security prison.