The story begins in Canberra with the minister for immigration murdered in her home. We know that the story is fictional, as the incumbent government is Labor. We then discover the political machinations that provided the context for the minister’s death. Our hero is Inspector Brad Chen, a Chinese-Australian detective in the Australian Federal Police. This pill-popping, hard-drinking former rugby player with the astounding vocabulary (e.g. ‘dégustation’) will have you feeling his anxiety, especially when you run to the dictionary. Chen is suitably broken for a detective. Having a leg in a cast throughout the novel enhances this sense of brokenness.

Robertson gets the mix between comedy and drama right. There is enough humour to make the story entertaining, but enough drama to give it substance. Some of Robertson’s lines are spot on, such as his description of Harmless Dugdale: ‘He lived with his mother and had a large collection of cardigans.’ Robertson informs, entertains and creates suspense. He is another fine addition to Text’s stable of crime writers. Besides, this mix of fiction and politics worked for Lord Archer (well, kind of).