Melbourne

A man dies after being dunked in a vat of toxic chemicals. A ship explodes in Port Phillip Bay, leaving a poisonous fallout. A pall of black smoke hangs over Melbourne's western suburbs as Jack Speerman begins his investigations into a cover up of lethal proportions. As Jack digs deeper, he unearths everything from crooked horse racing and money laundering on the trail of an illicit trade in chemical weapons, made right in Melbourne's own backyard. The stakes are high and the bodycount is even higher on a switchback ride of cross and double cross. Vengeance is a game no one can win.

After years of study and hard work, the strikingly beautiful Carmen Minelli finally achieves her dream of attaining a senior position with the most respected stockbroker in the land - J.D. Ford & Co.

A dead man alive at Melbourne's Festival Hall . . . a merino-shaped lake . . . a stolen copy of Thoreau's Walden . . . ASIO's wall of silence . . . Sandy Carmichael can pick up the pieces, but to fit the jigsaw together, he needs to risk his life.

In the heady days of the seventies, and at the tender age of nineteen, Decca Brand experimented with what was on offer - sex, drugs and intrigue. Far too much intrigue, it turns out, and of a sort that spells murder. Fast forward nearly thirty years and Decca is confronted by dangerous figures from her past. Not only that, the stunning psychologist and divorcee has a blind date lined up with a married man. And then things start to get complicated.

Ronnie Collins is an up and coming fashion designer, a devoted mother and the proud owner of a working marriage with Boyd.

So waking up naked and hung-over in a colleague's bed doesn't seem like an ideal life plan. Even before she finds the colleague's corpse on the front doormat.

From there Ronnie's work life and home life just gets more complicated.

Does her boss Dexter know more of what's going on? How is he involved?

Where is Lawrence - in Thailand or in a car-boot?

Is husband Boyd re-igniting his fascination for old flame Katie?

The son of a Baptist preacher, Bryce Petty looked like a choir boy. But when he is found murdered in Wellington, New Zealand, his less-than-angelic past becomes front-page news. President of the Melbourne-based gay and lesbian broadcasting firm, Spectrum Television, Bryce has left behind him a trail of debts and a slew of enemies.

As Word War II drags on, failed Shakespearian actor and would-be private detective William Power Returns to Melbourne in disgrace after his disastrous brush with theatre and murder in Maryborough. Bloodied, broken but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling under war rationing and resentful of cocky American soldiers, and lands squarely in the bosom of his childhood home in Carlton -  a home now dominated by his sister-in-law, the odious Darlene.

The first two books in Peter Temple's highly acclaimed Jack Irish series, now published in one volume.

Bad Debts' (Winner of the 1996 Ned Kelly Award) Ex-lawyer Jack Irish is in no special hurry to return a call from ex-client Danny McKillop. For one thing, they go back to a time Jack would rather forget. But when Danny is shot dead by police in the carpark of The Hero of Trafalgar, Jack reckons he owes Danny a few well-placed questions. Trouble is, the answers could take him to some very bad places indeed.

Jack Irish - lawyer, gambler and people-finder - is hunting down the villains who hijacked the winnings from his latest betting coup when he is hired by a mystery client to find missing barman Robbie Colburne. But Robbie turns up dead of a drug overdose. The case should be closed, but the dashing young barman was far from what he seemed, and the client wants to know more.

As Jack explores the young man's past, he finds himself drawn int oa deadly network of power, politics and money. In this world, nothing can be taken at face value and everyone is expendable - including Jack.

Jack Irish - gambler, lawyer, finder of missing people - is recovering from a foray into the criminal underworld when he agrees to look for the missing son of Des Connors, the last living link to Jack's father. It's an offer he soon regrets.

As Jack begins his search, he discovers that prodigal sons sometimes go missing for a reason. Gary Connors was a man with something to hide, and his trail leads Jack to millionaire and political kingmaker Steven Levesque, a man harboring a deep and deadly secret.