LONGLISTED FOR THE UK CRIME WRITERS ASSOCIATION STEEL DAGGER AWARD 2017!
'Serong writes pithy, pin-sharp dialogue...Expertly plotted, and its
noirish climax with its dark drama and its final twists, is devastating.
Get out and buy this book; it is the best new novel I've read this
year'-Crime Time (UK)
'There are moments of sheer delight in the boyhood sequences, where
sibling rivalry is painted with unerring accuracy by Jock Serong (winner
of the Ned Kelly Award for his novel Quota)...A novel of suspense, I
heartily recommend it'-Shots Magazine (UK)
'A story of the love and hate within families, of the failures of
masculinity, in a cricket context rendered with technical precision.
Brutal, perceptive, uncomfortably funny, occasionally breaking into
poetry.'--Geoff Lemon on Rules of Backyard Cricket
'Funny, sad and oddly touching...also riveting...Beautifully written and
acutely observed, The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a noir tour de
force...Original Australian crime fiction of the first order.'--Sydney
Morning Herald
'Pitch-perfect dialogue, and a strong sense of place...A very engaging,
and extremely realistic debut novel.'--Reviewing The Evidence on
Quota
A novel of suspense about family, sport, celebrity, rivalry, masculinity
and the high price of getting everything you want.
Darren Keefe and his older brother are sons of a fierce and gutsy single
mother. Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise
that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety-- one
of those men who's always got away with things and just keeps getting.
Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged,
cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow
grave.
Narrated by Darren from the boot of a car on his way to what's sure to
be his own murder, this ambitious literary work is impossible to put
down. Reads like literary fiction, grips like a thriller.
Jock Serong lives and works on the southwest coast of Victoria.
Formerly a lawyer, he is now a features writer, and editor of Great
Ocean Quarterly. His debut, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for
Best First Crime Novel.
