The Big Whatever

When Billy Glasheen picks up a trashy paperback he finds in his cab, its plot seems weirdly familiar. One of the main characters is based on him . . . Only one person knows enough about his past to have written it—Max, his double-crossing ex-partner in crime. But Max is dead. He famously went up in flames, along with a fortune in cash, after a bank heist. If Max is somehow still alive, Billy has a score to settle. And if he didn’t get fried to a crisp, maybe the money didn’t either. To find out, Billy has to follow the clues in the strange little book—and rapidly discovers he’s not the only one on Max’s trail.

The Big Whatever is the fourth instalment of Peter Doyle’s acclaimed series, which has grown into an epic underground history of postwar Australia, where crooks, entertainers, scammers, corrupt cops and politicians all rub shoulders, chasing their big paydays.

Peter Doyle is the author of the crime fiction series featuring Billy Glasheen, which brilliantly explore the criminal underworld, political corruption, and the postwar explosion of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll in Australia. The series, which includes Get Rich Quick and The Devil's Jump, has won him three Ned Kelly Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. Doyle's other books include the highly acclaimed City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-48 and its successor, Crooks Like Us.

Luc Sante’s books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, Evidence, and Kill All Your Darlings. His lucid, authoritative introductions have graced the works of such seminal authors of crime fiction as Georges Simenon, Richard Stark, and Charles Willeford. Sante is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and teaches at Bard College.