Allen & Unwin

Old Selwyn Dixon has been boring Syd Fish and other regulars at the Acropolis cafe for years with stories about his heyday as a jockey. When he goes missing, nobody notices but Val, the big-hearted waitress at the Kings Cross greasy spoon. Even Selwyn's employer, a social-climbing Sydney trainer, seems oddly uninterested in the little jockey's welfare.

Transvestite president of the Sex Workers' Union and community activist, Paula Prince, is determined to save Surrey Street, Darlinghurst. Lorraine Lamont wants to develop it; Chicka Chandler won't leave it.

When Paula hires local PI Syd Fish to bodyguard Chicka, it looks like a straight-forward stakeout. It isn't. Dogfish enmeshes Syd Fish in a web of murder, corruption and political intrigue involving the gay community, the inner-city criminal milieu, and local and state politicians.

Jack Beaumont, architect turned property developer, is as surprised as the next person when he is approached by insurance tycoon Mac Biddulph to become the new CEO of HOA, the largest home-insurer in Australia. Seduced at first by the lure of power, Jack soon finds that beneath the glamorous facade of the Sydney business elite lies a convoluted network of corruption. Out of his depth and pursued by piranhas in a fish tank full of money, Jack must unravel the elusive threads or become ensnared himself.

In April 2002, wealthy socialite Margaret Wales-King and her husband Paul King left their home in a leafy eastern suburb, dined with her son and his family and then disappeared into thin air. Twenty-five days later, after an investigation that swamped the front pages, their bludgeoned bodies were found in a shallow bush grave just outside Melbourne.

In this well-researched analysis of a true and unsolved crime, the enigma surrounding the death of Janelle Patton—a 29-year-old Australian woman who disappeared while hiking on a popular Norfolk Island trail and was later found stabbed and dead - is investigated through personal interviews and probing questions. A territory of Australia, Norfolk Island itself is as fascinating and strange as Patton's murder. Few people in this secretive and protective island community of less than 2,000 citizens will discuss the incident, further shrouding Patton's death with mystery.

They called him Dr Death. A 15-year-old boy's leg had to be amputated as a result of his poor judgement. He botched a procedure on a young man, leaving him impotent and urinating through his rectum - and with a 30cm surgical clamp embedded in his abdomen. Undeterred by the atrocities he was causing, Dr Death continued to deceive the patients who trusted him to fix their pain. At least 17 people in his care did not survive.

A blood smear trailing along a footpath of a suburban Sydney street went largely ignored by local residents accustomed to hoaxes and bloody turf brawls in their beachside suburb. Initially police suspected it was nothing more than animal blood. But at the end of the trail, at the base of a Maroubra cliff, lay the naked body of notorious underworld figure Tony Hines, shot four times at close range. Hines was a man with a history of violence, a rape conviction and a long list of enemies. In the months following the discovery of his body, police unearthed more than just a killing.

The true story of a high profile suburban Melbourne murder - one of the last to allow the defence of provocation. James Ramage was a prosperous man. And like all prosperous men James Ramage owned things - a nice house in middle class Balwyn, a successful business, a healthy bank account, two teenagers at elite private schools, and a beautiful wife. To anyone looking on, it seemed that James Ramage had it all. Then one day his lovely wife left him. Forever.

... the inside story of the controversial shooting of undercover policeman Michael Drury.

On 29th February 2000, Katherine Knight committed an unspeakable act. A mother of four and a grandmother, she seduced and then stabbed John Price 37 times.

A former abattoir worker, she skinned him.

A loving partner, she cooked him with vegetables, making a soup with his head. Made gravy. Left him on plates for his family. Why?

Pricey was her de facto and he wanted out. She didn't like that.