AustLit

'They were men afraid. men desperate. Patient. Exhausted. Half mad. They were the remnants of the Fifty-Fifth.

'The Germans thought that Egypt was theirs. All that stood in their way was the exhausted Eighth Army huddled in the gap between the Quattara Depression and the Mediterranean. But just before Montgomery's immortal attack at Alamein, an Australian infantry battalion was ordered into an action that would ordinarily have been given to a brigade.

'The Fifty-Fifth Division were thrown in to lure German tanks away from the fighting that would result in the successful Allied campaign ending in the Battle of El Alamein.

'A fast-paced tale that takes us into the seedy depths of war-torn Cairo, this powerful novel tells the story of the doomed Fifty-Fifth, a battalion so severely mauled, they were virtually extinct.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Head of Zeus ed.)

'Set in the charming and deadly streets of Melbourne, this vivid and brilliantly plotted murder thriller tells the story of a crime committed by an unknown assassin. With its panoramic depiction of a bustling yet uneasy city, Hansom Cab has a central place in Australian literary history and, more importantly, it remains highly readable. ' (Publication summary)