AustLit

''The Man Underground' is set in the remote opal town of Ginger Whisker. The town's named after the flaw found in much of the opal mined in the region - a thread of ginger whisker. Simon Crown runs the town's only radio station. Divorced, broke, and quite possibly an alcoholic, he soon discovers that it's not only the opal that's flawed in Ginger Whisker.

'When the local bank manager, Bill Mellish, sidles up to Crown at the bar he thinks nothing of it. It's a small town and the only sane place to be in the unrelenting desert heat is in one of the four hotels. But as Bill begins to question Simon about his finances and the monies owning on the radio station Ginger Whisker suddenly becomes a very sinister place.'