Set amid a seedy urban wasteland of crooks, killers and con-artists, the various members of a gang planning to execute a $500,000 jewellery store heist are steadily undone by their personal obsessions (teenage girls and mistresses, friendship and blood ties), double-crossing and fate.

Wake In Fright was first published in 1961 and the film version, Outback, starring Donald Pleasance was released in 1971. Both the book and the film have achieved a cult status as the Australian answer to US and UK novels and films of 1960s youthful alienation.
Wake In Fright is the gruelling story of a young Australian schoolteacher on his way back from the outback to Sydney and civilisation... when things start to go wrong. He finds himself stuck overnight in Bundanyabba ('the Yabba')- a rough outback mining town. The heat and the misery are described in painful detail as this one evening changes the course of John Grant's life for ever... all on the flip of a coin. An ill-advised and drink-fuelled visit to a gambling den leaves Grant broke and he realizes he has no way of escaping the Yubba. He descends into a cycle of hangovers, fumbling sexual encounters and increasing self-loathing as he becomes more and more immersed in the grotesque and surreal nightmare that his life has become... revealing the baser side of his own nature as well as the harshness of life in the Australian outback. Grotesque but absolutely compelling, this has become a cult read.

Eddie plays to forget. Haunted by his past, he hides from life playing nightly in a skid row drinking joint - a world of hookers, lowlifes and petty crooks. A hopeless ghost of a man who has ceased caring about himself, he saves his loyalty for others which eventually drags him down.

When Ben Harper is hung for his part in a bank robbery, he leaves his young children John and Pearl to hide the $10,000. Soon a strange preacher comes to town and claims to have known their daddy. While he preaches the Word of the Lord, darkness lurks in his heart, and he wants the money.

A illustrated history of the genre

During the 100 years from the middle of the 19th century to the 1950s, every important element of crime fiction was created. From Sherlock Holmes to James Bond, and from Edgard Allan Poe to John le Carre, this book explores the exciting cultural history behind crime fiction. In this book, crime enthusiasts can see how the famous (and sometimes infamous!) works of crime fiction were originally published and how unknown writers and illustrators were responsible for a genre that was to become one of the conerstones of popular culture. Discover how Wilkie Collins; book "The Woman in White" was inspired by meeting his future wife running away from captors; why Arthur Conan Doyle was forced to bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead; which pair of brothers became enemies in the fight for crime fiction supremacy; and how Charlie Chan, the first Chinese-American fictional detective, came into being.

Written using Pearce's own experiences of working on a Florida chain gang, this is the tale of a war hero turned drunkard, vandal and convict. Luke says little but talks through his actions. His acts of defiance and refusal to "git his mind right" make him a legend amongst his fellow convicts.