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Matthew Condon

Författare till The Trout Opera

20+ verk 415 medlemmar 13 recensioner

Om författaren

Matthew Condon is an Australian journalist and writer. He was born in 1962 in Brisbane, Australian. He was educated at the University of Queensland and the Goethe Institute, Bremen, Germany. His first book was The Motorcycle Cafe. A Night at the Pink Poodle and The Lulu Magnet both won Steele Rudd visa mer Awards for Short Fiction. All Fall Down (book 3 of the Terry Lewis biographies, Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers) won the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards Small publishers' adult book of the year. His other books include Usher, The Ancient Guild, The Pillow Fight, and The Trout Opera. Currently, he writes for The Courier-Mail. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre

Serier

Verk av Matthew Condon

The Trout Opera (2007) 127 exemplar
Three Crooked Kings (2013) 55 exemplar
Brisbane (2010) 45 exemplar
Jacks and Jokers (2013) 36 exemplar
The Pillow Fight (1998) 28 exemplar
All Fall Down (2015) 27 exemplar
The Motorcycle Cafe (1988) 14 exemplar
The Night Dragon (2019) 14 exemplar
The Toe Tag Quintet (2012) 11 exemplar
A night at the Pink Poodle (1995) 11 exemplar
Usher (1991) 9 exemplar
The Lulu Magnet (1996) 7 exemplar
Little fish are sweet (2016) 7 exemplar
Lime Bar (2001) 6 exemplar
The Ancient Guild of Tycoons (1995) 6 exemplar

Associerade verk

Granta 72: Overreachers (2000) — Bidragsgivare — 132 exemplar
The Best Australian Stories 2006 (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 31 exemplar
Penguin Australian Summer Stories (1999) — Bidragsgivare — 14 exemplar

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Recensioner

"Little Fish are Sweet" is a memoir style book in which Condon describes his research and developing relationship with disgraced former Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis, during the writing of the "Three Crooked Kings"; a series about police corruption in Queensland. He describes Lewis' interesting behaviour and beliefs about the Fitzgerald Inquiry, his obsessive diary keeping and note taking, and extensive records. Condon also discusses the disturbing presence of paedophiles and their involvement in the Queensland Scouts movement and education system. An interesting read.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
SarahEBear | Sep 23, 2020 |
In 1973 in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub was firebombed and 15 people died. In January 1974 Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki and Leanne (aged 13 and 11 respectively) disappeared. It was not until 2017 that Vincent O'Dempsey, known amongst other things as the "Night Dragon" was found guilty along with an accomplice Garry Dubois, of their murder. Their bodies have never been found.

THE NIGHT DRAGON is the latest book from award-winning investigative journalist Matthew Condon, searching back over all those years for the events that led to, and maybe go some way to explaining, the death of the McCulkin's. It's tied up with many many years of criminal behaviour on the part of a group of men, starting out as boys forming gangs in and around Brisbane, suburbs and out towards Sydney.

A lot of the content of the book concentrates on the lead up to and the firebombing itself. Readers who are already aware of the connections between various criminals and dodgy characters, and the two people eventually found guilty of the bombing may feel that this is terrority already covered in other books, although anybody new to the story will discover just what a murky mess the whole situation had become. You might also be well aware of the results of the Fitzgerald Inquiry in Queensland into police corruption and integrity that has connections into the Whiskey Au Go Go killings as well.

Vincent O'Dempsey, however, for this Victorian was an unknown factor, especially as there are hints throughout this book that he could very well have killed a shocking number of people. And therein lay a tiny bit of disappointment about the book. Whilst aspects of O'Dempsey's activities were covered in THE NIGHT DRAGON, the focus seemed to be on the Whiskey Au Go Go fire. Whenever it veered more solidly into the behaviour of O'Dempsey and his involvement in the murder of the McCulkin's it started to reveal some information that was news. It started to reveal a bit about a man who sounds like he's been a thoroughly malicious and evil presence, and yet, somehow he managed to remain shadowy throughout this book. On the upside, it's an engaging telling, and there are aspects of the tie up and interconnections that are indeed sobering. Condon, as always, seems to have done extensive research, but his books never read as dry, or instructional. He gives life and humanity to the victims, and he does a terrific job at keeping track of the various crooks and their complicated interactions and relationships.

Barbara, Vicki and Leanne McCulkin deserve to be remembered, to have their story told, and to have it clearly understood that they were callously killed. The fact that it took over 40 years for their killers to be bought to justice is a testament to the people who eventually felt compelled to tell what they knew, and the persistence of the cops who followed up on their testimony.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/night-dragon-matthew-condon
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
austcrimefiction | Mar 31, 2019 |
 
Flaggad
Sharlene_Kerr | Dec 21, 2017 |
"All Fall down" is the final instalment in Condon's trilogy covering corruption in the Queensland police force from the 1940s to the 1999s. This book covers the mid 80's to 2000. I enjoyed this book and its description of the political goings on in Queensland at the time and personally remember when all of the events happened. Despite the slightly stilted style and the incredible twists and events, the reader is kept enthralled.
 
Flaggad
SarahEBear | Jun 23, 2016 |

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Statistik

Verk
20
Även av
3
Medlemmar
415
Popularitet
#58,725
Betyg
½ 3.7
Recensioner
13
ISBN
90
Språk
1

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