The Brush-off

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.

About the Author

Shane Maloney is one of Australia’s most popular novelists. His award-winning and much loved Murray Whelan series—Stiff, The Brush-Off, Nice Try, The Big Ask, Something Fishy and Sucked In—is characterised by a strong sense of humour and an acute sense of Melbourne’s political and cultural nuances. He has been published in the UK, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Finland and the U.S.