Nothing in the post-war decades reveals the underbelly of Australian life the way police records do.
Small time heists. Failed robberies. Runs of bad luck. Payback. Love gone wrong. Drink, drugs and late-night assignations. Cops doing their job well. And badly. Plausible lies, unlikely truths. Murder and misadventure. In Suburban Noir Peter Doyle, author of City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us, explores the everyday crime and catastrophe that went on in the fibro and brick veneers, the backyards, bedrooms, vacant lots and pokie palaces of 1950s and 1960s suburbia.
Extensive research into forensic archives, public records and the private papers of the late Brian Doyle (1960s detective, later assistant commissioner of police, and Peter Doyleâs uncle) also reveals important new information about two of the most famous crimes in Australian history â" the Kingsgrove Slasher case and the Graeme Thorne kidnap-murder.
About the AuthorPeter Doyle is a novelist and non-fiction writer. He has curated major exhibitions on pulp publishing and forensic material cultures. His books include City of Shadows, 2005 and Crooks Like Us, 2009, and the novel
The Big Whatever 2015.
He is the recipient of two Ned Kelly Awards for his fiction, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Honorary Associate Professor of Media at Macquarie University, Sydney.
Industry Reviews
'A fabulous insight into violent crimes of the 1950s and 1960s through the eyes of one of Australia's then top cops, Brian Doyle, as interpreted and related by his nephew, true-crime writer, curator and crime aficionado, Peter Doyle. Often accompanied by great photos and drawings, each story is a gem that highlights the differences in criminal activity and police investigations in those days. Well researched and eminently readable.' -" Mark Tedeschi
'A beautifully written and illustrated book about crime and crime scenes in Sydney during the 1950s and â60s, some of them involving the authorâs famous uncle, the detective Brian Doyle. It is a fascinating snapshot of the culture of Australia in those years, describing in words and images the cars, clothes, architecture, music, drugs, language and prejudice of the period. At times engrossing, macabre, absurdly funny and sadly shabby. The pictures are a mixture of crime scene photographs and Peter Doyleâs finely rendered pencil and ink versions of some of these photographs.' -" Reg Mombasa
'With these shocking, at times heartbreaking, stories of very bad things happening to ordinary people, our foremost crime chronicler Peter Doyle shines his forensic spotlight on the schemers, slashers, killers and cops who have always lurked in the shadows of sunny Sydney suburbia.' -" Larry Writer, Razor: Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh
