AustLit

'On a sultry summer night Murray Whelan is in the Botanical Gardens tasting Salina Fleet's apricot lips. Meanwhile the body of an artist is being fished from the ornamental moat outside the Art Gallery. The papers called it suicide. The police say it's an accident.

'Political minder, brushed-off lover and art buff on the make, Murray goes looking for the big picture. He finds there's more than meets the eye among the self-made millionaires, ruthless culture vultures, and cool operators of Melbourne's art world. He learns that when you dabble with death there's nothing abstract about a loaded gun.

'Murray Whelan, the hero of Stiff, Shane Maloney's brilliant debut novel, is back at his richly futile best. A romantic comedy and drop-dead thriller, The Brush-Off mixes high art with low blows.' (Publication summary)

'The first Murray Whelan adventure

'The fiddle at the Pacific Pastoral meat-packing works was a nice little earner for all concerned until Herb Gardiner reported finding a body in number 3 chiller. An accident, of course, but just the excuse a devious political operator might grab to stir up trouble with the unions.

'Enter Murray Whelan, minder, fixer and general dogsbody for the Minister of Industry. Between playing of party factions and pursuing the kohl-eyed Ayisha, it’s all in a day’s work for Murray to hose down the situation at Pacific Pastoral.

'Then the lairy V8 turns up. And after that, it gets personal. Because don’t you just hate it when somebody tries to kill you and you don’t know who or why?' (Publication summary)

Sweet Night for Murder tells how young and pretty Cathy Simpson comes to Sydney to spend a few weeks with friends before her marriage to wealthy grazier Roger Clements. But it is with horror that her friends Keith and Jess Watson find her murdered on their terrace one beautiful summer evening. However, when Inspector Grogan and Sergeant Manning, of the Sydney C.I.B., start their inquiries, a trail of deceit and even blackmail is unearthed, and it seems that many of Cathy's so-called friends have good reason to dislike and even fear her. But with their usual calm investigations Grogan and Manning manage to ascertain the identity of the murderer as the story comes to a thrilling ending (The Australian Women's Weekly, 31 August 1960).