The Devil's Jump

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. About the Author Born in Sydney, Peter Doyle worked as a taxi driver, musician, and teacher before writing his first book, Get Rich Quick, (9781891241154) which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 1997. He has since published two further books featuring protagonist Billy Glasheen, Amaze Your Friends (9780091836566) and The Devil’s Jump, which also won a Ned Kelly Award. He also wrote the acclaimed City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948. (9781876991203) He lectures in writing at Macquarie University, Sydney. --This text refers to the paperback edition. Sydney, 1959. Billy Glasheen, Lurk Merchant And Low-life, Can't Take A Trick. The Past Has Caught Up With Him In The Form Of Fred Slaney, Sydney's Meanest, Crookedest Cop, Who Wants Ten Thousand Pounds To Keep Quiet About Glasheen's Involvement In The Death Of A Fellow Cop. Billy Isn't The Killer, But He's In It Up To His Neck And He's An Easy Target. He's Given A Simple Choice: Pay Up In Six Months Or Take Early Retirement, Six Feet Down, Looking At The Sky. But Making Quick Money Can Be Slow Work. Billy's Dodgy Mail-order Business Selling Betting Systems And Lucky Monkey's Paws To The Mugs Isn't Going To Cut It - He Needs A Real Source Of Income. Increasingly Desperate And With A Dozen Scams On The Boil, He Relieves His Stress By Sneaking Off To An Opium Den In Chinatown. The Trouble Is, It's Not Just Slaney Who's On His Back, And Billy's Deadline Faces A Serious Hurdle When He Lands In Jail On Trumped Up Charges. Amaze Your Friends Picks Up Where Get Rich Quick Left Off And Is An Hilarious Romp Through The Underside Of Sydney At The Turn Of The Decade. It's A World Of Bodgies And Beatniks, Reefer Smoking, Popping Dexes, Racetrack Lurks, Seedy Promoters, Rock'n'roll Shows, And Drunks On Skid Row. There Are Cameos From Real-life People - Rex Mossop Playing His First Grand Final, Paul Keating As An Up-and-coming Band Manager In The Western Suburbs, The Legendary Rock Promoter Lee Gordon, And The Stripper Sabrina. Peter Doyle Has Meticulously Researched The Era And He Writes With An Eye For Detail That Takes You Right Into It. Not Just Another Retro Novel, Amaze Your Friends Is Written With All The Irony, Self-deprecation, Wit And Street Savvy Of Pulp Fiction. About The Author Peter Doyle Was Born In 1951. He Grew Up In Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, And Has Worked As A Taxi Driver And A Teacher. He Has Long Had A Fascination With Music And Mass Culture, And Is Currently Doing A Phd In Cultural Studies At Macquarie University. He Is Also Considered (by Toby Creswell Among Others) To Be One Of Australia's Best Blues Guitarists And Divides His Playing Time Between The Big Top Blues Band And A Country-style Duet With Ron Blake. Peter Doyle's First Novel Was Get Rich Quick. He Lives In Newtown With His Wife And Daughter. Selling Points *** The Previous Adventures Of Billy Glasheen, Get Rich Quick, Won The 1997 Ned Kelly Award For Best First Crime Novel And Has Collected A Cult Of Passionate Supporters, Including Actors, Musicians, Broadcasters And Academics. *** Amaze Your Friends Has A Wide Audience Base, From Robert G. Barret Fans To Literary Highbrows. *** Some Comment On Get Rich Quick: 'an Absolute Gem...a Marvellous Read And A Truly Distinctive Piece Of Australian Crime Writing' (stuart Coupe); 'hugely Classy...the Best Crime Yarn Yet About Sydney In The 1950s...makes Billy Thorpe's Memoirs Of Life In The 1960s Look Like An Episode Of Blue Hills' (graeme Blundell) '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. SYDNEY, 1959. Billy Glasheen is flogging mailorder schemes out of a seedy back room in Chinatown. Want to play guitar in 14 days? Learn Italian in your spare time? Win big with an infallible betting system? Master the love secrets of the ancients? Bills your man. But there are unsettled accounts in Billys past, and theyre coming due. As shadowy factions line up around him, he cant be sure if hes the target or caught in someone elses crossfire. Or is he imagining the whole thing? Finally an ultimatum is come up with a small fortune in hush money, or cop a bullet and a shallow grave. Six months, and the clock is ticking. Its time to call in all debts and favours, but right when he needs them most, Bills old gang of beatniks, bandits, and hoochie coochie girls seem to have made themselves strangely scarce. Hes on his own. Amaze Your Friends is a dark, wild ride through a city of easy money and sudden falls, of high times and hangovers, of jukebox rocknroll and the lowdown flophouse blues. Casts a fascinating light on the shadowy underworld of Sydney in the years between the two world wars. The uncompromising truthfulness of the photos, and the diligence, humility and artfulness used in their manufacture gives them a paradoxically tonic quality. There are horrors here, but delights too The extensive collection of police forensic negatives casts a fascinating light on the shadowy underworld of Sydney between the wars.