AustLit

When the hitman hiding in Roberta Williams' roof confessed he could not kill her and her children, she made a promise to herself - to get her children out of the bloodiest battle the Australian underworld has known. Roberta's childhood was less than ideal; beaten by her mother and step-father, kicked out of school for fighting and made a ward of the state at eleven. After attacking a guard with a knife she entered the prison system. An early marriage to an abattoir worker with an abusive streak and some dangerous friends - the Moran brothers - produced two children. A guest at their wedding, up and coming career criminal Carl Williams would become her second husband. Carl was a welcome antidote. Content with a stable family life and flush with the spoils of criminal success, Roberta wasn't overly concerned with her husband's occupational hazards - the police charges, the drug trafficking, the payoffs - until the bodies started turning up. Williams found herself tangled in a vicious web of deceit, denial and payback as the feud erupted onto the streets. Throughout this underworld saga, Roberta raised four children in a suburban home - her devotion to them saw her emerge from the wasteland, a survivor. (Publisher's website)