In this second Jack Irish thriller, Temple continues to excavate the dark depths of contemporary Australia. Jack Irish has no shortage of friends. Jockeys and journos, lawyers and standover men, people in nameless occupations who aren't in the phone book. These days, though, the only family he sees are Irish men in faded football team photographs on the pub wall. So when Des Connors, the last link to his father, calls to ask for help in the matter of a missing son, Jack is happy to lend a hand. But sometimes prodigal sons go missing for a reason. As Jack begins to dig, he discovers that Gary Connors was a man with something to hide. And his friends are people with darker and more deadly secrets. Peter Temple has worked extensively as a journalist and editor for newspapers and magazines in several countries. He has won five Ned Kelly Awards for his novels, and won the world's most prestigious crime writing prize, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger. In 2010 he was awarded Australia's greatest writing prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award. His books are published in more than twenty countries. textpublishing.com.au 'This is a highly complex and magnificently crafted thriller from a top-drawer practitioner. To my mind Temple has the magic touch: he is deft, dry, sharp-eyed, inventive.' ABR