The Big Ask

Murray Whelan should have been asleep in bed.

That’s where the smart money is at 4.30 on a wet winter’s morning. Not loitering among the truckies at the fruit and vegetable market. Not picking fights with a gun-toting kid in a cashmere coat. Not tasting forbidden fruit in the back of Donny Maitland’s rig.

But what’s a lonely political minder to do? His son Red has disappeared, and his boss Angelo Agnelli has sent him on a mission to infiltrate the toughest union in the country.
With an election looming, a homicide cop on his heels, adultery in the air and a gun buried in the backyard, the triumphantly futile hero of Shane Maloney’s acclaimed thrillers is crunching the numbers once again.

Now Murray Whelan faces his biggest ask yet.