Nice Try
A Murray Whelan Mystery
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Third Murray Whelan Adventure
When Murray Whelan, lovelorn political minder and part-time fitness fanatic, is recruited to massage Australia's bid for the Olympics he has no idea how tough the going will get.
Not even the sight of the gorgeous Holly Deloite in her taut blue leotard at the City Club can stop him diving head first into trouble. And, when the death of the young Aboriginal athlete Darcy Anderson proves that murder is a contact sport, Murray is soon breaking all the rules.
Mixing it with a savvy black activist, a body-building psychopath and the enigmatic Dr Phillipa Knox, Murray jumps the gun every time.
'One of the most outrageously funny voices in modern detective fiction...Shane Maloney's prose is more than a 'nice try' at combining social and political satire with the conventions of the crime novel. It's spot on.' Age
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the third book (after Stiff) of this wry Australian mystery series, sardonic and diffident detective Murray Whelan gets recruited to help the government win its bid to host the Summer Olympics. As a senior adviser to the minister for the department of water supply and the arts, Whelan would rather spend his time pedaling away his midlife paunch and ennui on an exercise bicycle while watching young women prance around in their seamless Lycra bodysuits than get entangled in politicking. But when Steve Radeski, a thick-necked weightlifter loaded up on ram steroids, rages through the streets of Melbourne and a promising young black triathlete turns up dead, Whelan knows he has no choice but to lace up his gumshoes. While the plot here tends to be rather formulaic, readers will be drawn to the lively cast of hilarious personalities, including a fat and dour minister of sport; a sexy, whip-smart physician battling her nicotine addiction; a vapid aerobics instructor; and a sly Aboriginal activist. Far and away the most fully realized character in this whimsical novel is Whelan himself, who makes for an irresistible narrator. Maloney renders a vulnerable and very human portrait of this unlikely hero as he struggles to quit smoking, lose weight, rejuvenate his waning sex life and reconnect with his young son, all the while trying to stop a psychopath dead in his tracks. In so doing, the author adds a fresh and immensely appealing dimension to the genre.
