Stephen Greenall's tale of a Sydney underworld is a carefully crafted book ripe with passages of sharply witty dialogue that have a grim humour. Something grim is happening, events with back-stories driving them that the reader only begins to understand as the book unfolds. Yet someone was fingered to pay a price; the judge's murder covered up by the interweaving interests of criminals and the law. There are rich passages of sharply witty dialogue that have their own inner grim humour. An impressive first novel, this is no easy read, yet offers the crime-thriller addict a refreshing way of gaining a high.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 05, 2017 18:05 UTC