Posts

Showing posts from June, 2017
Aussie Crime Bloopers, or Silly Scallywags. Have you ever done something silly at work? Perhaps you’ve sent a form to the wrong office or knocked over a cup of coffee in a staff meeting. Everyone does it; it’s no big deal unless your occupation involves gunfire, detectives, and gaol . Here’s a few examples of silly scallywags who made the coppers’ job just a little too easy. Arrest by Chocolate:  Early in 1996, a string of robberies had left the Adelaide authorities baffled. Some bugger was breaking into small businesses and pinching cash along with low-cost items. A few shopkeepers had opened their premises to discover empty safes and bare cake cabinets. How rude! The mastermind even left a note for the “Beuro” (bureau) stating they should “Be considering a new line of work.” The police were unable to locate any compelling evidence, such as fingerprints that matched a previously arrested person, and it seemed likely that several more shops would be hit. Then, in the middle
Image
Dead I Well May Be, By Adrian McKinty. Yes, you are reading it correctly, and yes, I wrote it properly. The book is called “Dead I Well May Be,” and it’s brilliant. McKinty imbues his protagonist, Michael Forsythe, with a dark sense of humour that follows him like a loyal dog; a savage mongrel that defends him from the misery with which his companions seem infected. This Irishman is poor, violent, and cursed, but he’s also quite funny, and that makes this book more entertaining than the vast majority of other 1990’s New York City gangster novels. Another lovely point of interest in this story is the travelling. The gangsters of “Dead I Well May Be” move from the darkest crack-dens of Harlem to the most beautiful beaches of the tropics and (unfortunately for Michael) a few places in between. This broadens the fictional world and we, as readers, journey beside our favourite characters. One final point that must be mentioned is the narrative voice. It’s ju
Image
How to Smuggle: An Article What were you doing in 1992? Did you go anywhere nice? Did you, perhaps, take a memorable holiday? Did you have food, water and electricity? You and I are lucky because many of the citizens of Croatia did not. The images above show the immense difference between life in Dubrovnik in 1991, and life in Dubrovnik in 2013. At the fall of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s, Serbia and Croatia went to war. This conflict swallowed the entire region and other areas such as Bosnia and Herzegovina were plunged into a terrible state of conflict. This article will focus on a single consequence of that savagery: smuggling in Croatia. In 1991, the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic used his power over The Federal Yugoslav People’s Army to invade Croatia. War had arrived, and the Croats were not prepared. To complicate matters, an international arms embargo on The Balkans prevented the Croatian government from importing weaponry to arm the defending nati
Image
Michael Robotham,  The King of Crime. Do you want suspense, romance, action and humour all in the same chapter? How about spectacular passages of love between moments of terrifying violence? There are not that many novels that offer the whole range of literary pleasures, but I guarantee you’ll be tripping over corpses in between tears of joy as you make your way through any Robotham story. He simply balances the aspects of his unique crime books perfectly like the first person to think of adding salt to caramel. In his most prominent series, a family man named “Joe O’Loughlin” finds himself repeatedly injected into the operations of the police force. Through each novel, Joe’s skills at dealing with depraved criminals are tested as he takes turns hunting and hiding from the planet’s most terrifying killers. Kidnap, abuse and murder become common in Joe’s life, but what will happen to his family when the victims begin to cry louder than his children, and Joe’s obligation to