The Shark Net : Memories and Murder - Softcover

Drewe, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140288694 ISBN 13: 9780140288698

Publisher: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE, 2001

Synopsis

"Constructed with superb craftsmanship, written with precision and tough humour, and with an extraordinary story to tell, it seems certain to enjoy a long life." TLS "The book is suffused with a wonderfully achieved sense of menace. Events are quietly encircled with by a mysterious menace, most obviously suggested by the "murder" of the subtitle, which refers to a serial killer who terrorises suburban Perth during the 1950s..." Guardian "A darkly witty memoir of sex, death and hypocrisy in small-town Australia." Daily Telegraph

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Drewe was born in Melbourne, grew up in Western Australia and now mainly lives in Sydney. He is the author of two short story collections and five novels, including the critically acclaimed THE DROWNER which has won seven major literary prizes. His work has been widely transtated and has been adapted for film, television and radio.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Such a strange literary amalgam: a Cold War-era youth memoir interpolated with a true-crime drama. Yet, as written by Drewe, it not only makes sense, but is also damnably compelling at that.Quite popular and well respected "down under" as a novelist (The Drowner, 1997), Drewe stakes out new literary territory, telling of his progress from schoolboy to young newsman on the make. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s against the remote backdrop of Perth (described by some as "the most isolated city in the world"), the story manages to cover a lot of ground, tying together several themes effortlessly: youthful superstition, adolescent longing, suburban conformity, the ongoing war between man and nature, the wonders of rubber products (really), etc. But bracketing the author's recollections of sun-dappled days at the beach, boozy, glad-handing get-togethers arranged by Drewe's dad, a successful Dunlop tire area manager, and the fear of "boiling brain" (a nonexistent affliction arising from prolonged bareheadedness under the relentless western Australian sun), is the forbidding shadow narrative of Eric Cooke. Fired from a menial job at the Dunlop factory, Cooke moves to the fringes of polite society. Hare-lipped, hot-tempered, and the young father of seven, Cooke turns out also to be a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the Perth area, killing a former school chum of Drewe's, among others. Drewe and Cooke come together, in a sense, when the former is an investigative reporter on the overnight crime beat. While these protagonists' dual paths are in no means parallel, and their meeting is, as the book's title suggests, inevitable, Drewe creates and maintains suspense by moving Cooke throughout the narrative in much the same stealthy fashion that Cooke moved through the underside of Perth. Drewe also fleshes out Cooke's character by creating a sympathetic portrait of the killer's wife, and lends some insight into why he turned "bad."Altogether unexpected and quite involving: a briskly paced summer read. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0140288694
• ISBN 13: 9780140288698
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368